Itta Bena, MS (February 18, 2019) – Mississippi Valley State women's basketball team (4-19, 3-9) fell at home to the Lady Jaguars of Southern, 67-46, Monday night in the Harrison HPER Complex. Senior Kristy Parker led the Devilettes with 11 points on 4-for-8 made free throws and 3-for-9 shooting from the field.
The Devilettes shot 14-of-54 (26 percent) from the field, 3-of-17 (17 percent) from beyond the arc, and 15-of-32 (47 percent) from the free throw line on the night.
Southern (13-11, 10-3 SWAC) is the top-ranked team in the conference and built a nine-point advantage at the end of the first quarter by holding the Devilettes to three made field goals. The lead increased to double-digits in the second period as MVSU could not buy a bucket until Parker converted a layup while drawing a foul at the 4:27 mark. Back-to-back three-pointers by the Devilettes pulled MVSU to within 10 at the 3:01 mark. Parker had six points in the period but the Devilettes went into halftime trailing Southern, 39-28.
At the half, the Devilettes shot below 50 percent across the board and Smith led the Devilettes with seven points. Southern used multiple runs in the second half maintaining their double-digit advantage. The Devilettes took an 18-point deficit into the fourth quarter and held MVSU to one field goal in the final 10-minutes.
MVSU shot 25 percent from the field, were held to 14 made field goals, four assists, and 46 total points which were all season-lows.
For the Lady Jaguars, Taneara Moore and Alyric Scott led the way with double-doubles. Moore had 19 points and 15 rebounds followed by Scott with 19 points and 12 rebounds.
The Devilettes will begin their final road trip of the regular season this weekend when they head to Texas. First on the two-game road trip is the Lady Panthers of Prairie View on February 23
rd at 3 p.m.
Head Coach Ashley Walker-Johnson
On tonight's game…
"Tough one.. Not a lot of words, because this is the same team that we led at their place the majority of the game… probably around 35 minutes. To come out with a little bit of energy, and a little bit of effort, it was not good… I told my team they have to be able to move forward from game to game. What makes this worse is that we gave one up on Saturday. If you don't give that one up, the vibe is different… The momentum is different. And that's what happens when you don't take care of business..."
On preparing for Southern and their stiff defense…
"Southern is extremely athletic, and they have a lot of five-foot guards, and of course, everyone knows we are small. The game plan doesn't really change for us. I will have to say, this go round, Southern's coach played more bigs… and that was smart. At their place, he was playing them sparingly, so we were able to get away with the guard play. Our game plan was the same, but he utilized his bigs. One at a time is kind of how we play, because we are guard dominant. He ate us up on the inside."
Senior Guard Kristi Parker
On leading in scoring…
"I felt like it was an okay game… I could've brought more, but that was it…"
Senior Guard LaKendra Bassett
On what she brought to the team tonight…
"Not my best game… The shots that I did take weren't falling, so what I did was try to give the ball up more to give everyone a chance to contribute. We have to come ready to play this coming weekend in Texas."
On preparing for Southern these past few days…
"I feel like we didn't prepare as much coming into the other games that we did compete in. Tonight as a team, we didn't compete as we should, and play together…"
