ITTA BENA, Miss. – The Devilettes of Mississippi Valley State University opened their basketball season Saturday with a 62-58 exhibition game win over Stillman College of Alabama.
 
Valley secured a thrilling, come-from-behind win thanks to a third quarter in which the Devilettes outscored Stillman College 22-10. The Devilettes trailed by as many as nine points before scoring 13 unanswered points between the 5:11 and 1:05 marks of the quarter.
 
LaKendra Bassett led the Devilettes with 13 points on 5-of-10 shooting. Desiray Mosley and Makayla Bonner both came off the MVSU bench and scored 12 points apiece.
 
After going into halftime trailing 28-20, the Devilettes scored 44 points in the final two quarters. Valley shot 57 percent (12 of 21) from the field after halftime, and made four out of six 3-point shots during that span.
 
Though the Devilettes led throughout the fourth quarter, Stillman managed to pull within two points with 90 seconds left to play when Kiazha Ginwright made a layup that cut the Valley lead to 57-55. On the next possession, Bassett went to the free throw line and made one out of two free throws.
 
The Devilettes then forced a Stillman turnover, and then gave themselves some breathing room on the next trip down the floor when Bassett knocked down a 3-pointer to stretch the MVSU lead to 61-55 with 46 seconds left in the game.
 
Valley will open its regular season on Sunday, Nov. 11, when they visit TCU as part of a two-game trip to the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. in Fort Worth.