Hornets fall to Meredith

By Jerry Holsworth - sports@nvdaily.com

WINCHESTER -- For slightly more than a half, Shenandoah University women's basketball team seemed to have its USA South Conference game with Meredith College under control. The Hornets had led, with just two short exceptions, since the opening tip, and looked to be on their way to victory.

Then, like a rock falling off a cliff, Shenandoah turned as cold as the weather outside. The Hornets allowed the Avenging Angels to not just get back into the game, but to upend them 66-56 on Sunday. It was the last time the two teams will meet in a conference regular season game, as the Hornets will be moving to the Old Dominion Athletic Conference next season.

"We're very pleased with this win," Meredith coach Melinda Campbell said. "We know coming into this gym that it's going to be a war. Shenandoah has always played us tough, and today was no exception. It's always a real challenge for our team when we play them, and we're going to miss coming up here each year. We wish them the best in the ODAC."

The collapse came after a jumper by Holly Chittenden put the Hornets up 47-36 with 16:50 left in the game. For the next 13 minutes, Meredith went on a 22-5 run that left Shenandoah trailing 58-54 with just 4:56 left in the game.

"We were playing aggressive and strong on both sides of the ball in the first half," Hornets coach Michelle Guyant-Holloway said. "We came out for the second half and just seemed to be flat offensively. We weren't as aggressive as we were in the first half, and it's hard to win when you're missing easy shots."

Neither side shot particularly well in the second half. The Avenging Angels improved from 30-percent field goal shooting in the first half to 36.4 in the second half. The Hornets, however, dropped from 34 percent in the first half to 20 percent in the second half, hitting just 7 of 35 attempts.

What makes Shenandoah's failure to score points in the second half even more surprising is that they out-rebounded Meredith on both ends of the floor.

On the offensive side, Meredith had four players that carried their team to victory. All four scored consistently throughout the game. The Hornets top scorer, Sam Akers, finished the night with 10 points, but all of them came in the first half.

"We knew that whoever wins the last 10 minutes, almost always wins the game," Campbell said. "We made our shots, got the rebounds we needed, and most importantly, made our free throws over the last 10 minutes of this game."

The Avenging Angels were led by Megan Rahn's 23 points. Rahn is one of the top scorers in the country, but shot just 6 of 23 from the field and managed just one 3-pointer in six tries. She did hit all 10 of her free throws.

The key to Meredith's offensive consistency came from teammates Kristen Alford, Bryana Holmes and Beyanka Bailey.

Alford hit 6 of her 11 field goal attempts, and hammered home 4 of her 5 3-point attempts to finish the game with 16 critical points for the Avenging Angels. Bailey was also deadly from the line, hitting 7 of her 8 attempts to finish in double figures with 11 points.

Holmes used a 3 of 6 performance from beyond the 3-point line to finish with 12 points.
The second half looked nothing like the first half, where the Hornets were in complete control from the beginning. Abby Gallagher got things started with a 3-pointer just 1:30 into the game, and Shenandoah pushed its lead to 7-3 with 16:42 left in the first half.

"We just missed our shots in the second half," Gallagher said. "This is very disappointing. We really out-played them, particularly in the first half. We just missed too many easy baskets in the second half."

Meredith fought back and briefly took the lead when a 3-pointer by Alford put the Avenging Angels up 12-11. That lead only lasted about 40 seconds. Akers put the Hornets back ahead 13-12 on a jumper with 10:29 left in the first half.

That pattern seemed to play out for the rest of the first half. Alford would hit a 3-pointer that would tie the game or give Meredith a narrow lead, only to watch as the Hornets recovered quickly and got the lead back.

It continued through the first four minutes of the second half as both teams traded buckets at a furious pace. But as the half wore on the Avenging Angels continued to get their points while Shenandoah went cold.