By Joshua J. Darling, Sports Information Director
Senior Day Program I Senior Day Script
LAGRANGE, Ga. – LaGrange (19-6, 13-3 CCS) continues their march toward program history as they tied the 2011-12 team for the second most wins in a season with their 77-51 victory over Agnes Scott (3-22, 3-13 CCS) in an NCAA Division III women's basketball game on Saturday, February 18. They now find themselves just one win away from equaling the 2010-11 team's 20 wins, something they'll have the opportunity to tie in the postseason.
Sophomore guard Britney Chavez (Birmingham, Ala.) led the Panthers as the lone player in double-figures as she finished with 14 points behind a perfect 4-for-4 from beyond the arc and freshman guard Laila Battle (Smyrna, Ga.) added eight points, three assists and a pair of steals. Sophomore guard Kendra Roberts (Warner Robins, Ga.) rounded out the top performances with seven points in 12 minutes of action.
The first three and a half minutes looked like someone had left covers on the rims as the teams combined for just two points in that time, that being a layup by senior forward Breonna Glover (Macon, Ga.)
in the opening 17 seconds. While the Panthers broke free of that drought with four more buckets, ASC would be unable to escape their doldrums until nearly six minutes in, by which time they found themselves down 10-0.
Following a Scotties basket at the 4:10 mark of the opening quarter LaGrange would stretch to a 16-4 margin with 2:18 on the clock. At that point Agnes Scott's Kayla Jones knocked down a triple to help eventually narrow the gap to 20-10 by the quarter break.
The lead would grow to 13 in the opening minutes of the second but ASC would not go away as they closed to within 23-15 with 6:45 on the clock. Back-to-back layups by sophomore guard Zyhia Johnson (Homerville, Ga.) and two long balls from Chavez extended the lead to 35-18 behind a 12-3 run and the Panthers would head to the break holding a 40-26 advantage.
ASC would not go away despite that double-digit deficit and they immediately set about erasing it with the start of the second half. They would put together a 15-7 run over the first 6:31 and make it 47-41 but the Panthers would quickly assert their will as they matched with a commanding 16-4 stretch to hold a 63-44 lead heading to the fourth.
Neither team would be able to find their footing in the first two minutes of the frame but when they did it would be LC coming through with four buckets to make it 71-44 with 4:08 to play. From there the teams would be evenly matched as the Panthers closed out the 77-51 victory.
Ellia Chance led ASC with 13 points to go with four boards and three blocks while Erika McLeod just missed a double-double with eight points and nine boards. Haylah Spence added eight points and Jones finished iwths ix points and five rebounds.
The Panthers have earned the No. 2 seed in the 2023 Collegiate Conference of the South (CCS) Tournament and will host No. 7 Seed Covenant on Wednesday, February 22. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. in historic Mariotti Gymnasium.
NOTES
Prior to the game LaGrange recognized five individuals on Senior Day, those being Maria Riera Soriano, Gracie Brunel, Breonna Glover, Jada Strickland and Jada Brown.
