KSU’s women’s basketball team will return to the Atlantic Sun Conference playoffs for their third straight season as the 5th seed despite losing their last three games, including a, 72-64, loss to Lipscomb last Saturday.
The Lipscomb Bison came out shooting an incredible 69 percent from three point range in the first half of Saturday’s contest and the Owls found themselves down, 40- 28, at halftime.
The Owls constantly fought to keep up with the Bison and finally with 1:36 left to play in the 2nd half the Owls made it a one possession game when a Carmen Lockhart free throw made the score 65-62. Lockhart would miss her next free throw and immediately after the Bison hit their fourteenth and final three point field goal to put the game out of reach for the Owls.
“Again for the third game in arow we got off to a real slow start,” said head coach Colby Tilley. “It’s tough trying to get out of those holes and then when we have a chance to come back, we have an offensive breakdown, we gotta fix some things offensively if we’re gonna win another game this season.”
Despite the loss, junior Sametria Gideon appeared to be in good form, leading three Owls that scored in double figures with 16 points, eight rebounds, and a career-high five blocked shots. Freshman Carmen Lockhart also had a strong game off the bench scoring 11 points, and a career- high nine rebounds.
Senior forward Tamasha Bolden was presented with her own framed jersey before the start of the game to honor her time playing as an Owl. She played her final game coming off the bench with two points, one rebound and two blocked shots.
The Owls finish their season with a record of 13-16 (8-10 A-Sun) and they earned their 5th seed thanks to winning tiebreakers over Jacksonville and USC Upstate, who both finished with an 8-10 record in the A-Sun standings.
The Owls will face 4th seed North Florida in the first round of the Atlantic Sun Conference playoffs this Thursday at noon. The tournament will be hosted by Mercer in Macon, GA.
