JACKSON, Miss. – Unlucky bounces and scoring woes would be the story of the night for the LeTourneau University women's basketball team in a 57-41 road loss to Belhaven University in Jackson, Mississippi on Thursday, January 18th.
With the loss, LETU is now 3-13 overall and 0-9 in the American Southwest Conference while the host Blazers improved to 3-13 overall and 3-6 in the ASC.
For the game, LeTourneau posted a 23.7 percent (14-59) shooting average from the floor and went 8-for-10 from the charity stripe (80 percent) while holding a 32-26 advantage on the glass. Belhaven connected on 18-of-50 shots (36.0 percent) from the field and managed to get to the free throw line 28 times, making 17 (60.7 percent). Points in the paint would be a big part of the difference in the game with the Blazers holding a 22-8 advantage down low over the YellowJackets while also getting 21 points from bench players.
Freshman guard
Keauna Whitfield led LETU with 12 points and collected four rebounds to go along with three assists while sophomore
Alexandria Thorne scored a career-high 10 points and had five rebounds. Senior
Savannah Cummings led all players in the game with 12 total rebounds while playing all 40 minutes of the game. Belhaven got a game-high 14 points to go along with seven assists and five rebounds from starter AaLiyaha Thornton.
A slower pace than what is typically played by LeTourneau would be instituted from the start by Belhaven, with LETU jumping out to a 5-3 lead on a Cummings three-point play before seeing Lauren Brooks knot the game at five with a layup with 7:35 remaining in the first quarter. The YellowJackets would then open up their largest lead of the game with seven straight points with Thorne scoring five of the seven points to put LETU up by a score of 12-5. Belhaven responded by closing out the quarter with five straight points to pull within two at 12-10 heading to the second quarter as the final 5:54 of the period went without a LeTourneau point.
The lead would go back to four on a pair of Whitfield free throws to open the second quarter before seeing the Blazers go on a 9-2 run to open up a 19-16 lead with 4:28 left in the first half. Senior
Ashley Reed got the YellowJackets back in the scoring column to tie things up with a three, but more scoring issues ensued down the final stretch of the second quarter which allowed BU to take a 24-19 lead at intermission.
LeTourneau would find a way to keep the deficit in single digits for a majority of the third quarter, managing to pull back within four on two separate occasions after seeing Belhaven look to extend their halftime lead. Following a Whitfield jumper with 4:35 remaining in the third that brought LETU to within five at 30-25, the Blazers would close the quarter out on 11-3 run to go up 41-28 and put the YellowJackets in their biggest deficit up to that point.
Offensive struggles kept giving LeTourneau fits throughout the fourth as Belhaven would start to find their shooting touch, pushing their lead to 20 following a pair of Thornton free throws with just 3:43 remaining as the YellowJackets could not get a bucket to fall when they needed it most. Seven of the final nine points would wind up being scored by LETU, but it would not be enough as the Blazers held on to win by 16.
Originally scheduled as a road game, ongoing maintenance at the H.O. West Fieldhouse on the campus of Louisiana College will give the YellowJackets a home game this Saturday when they host the Wildcats at 2 p.m. inside Solheim Arena. The game will mark the start of a three-game home stand for LeTourneau.
