The Alice Lloyd College Lady Eagles closed the regular season last night with a visit to top-seeded Asbury University. The Lady Eagles lost a nail-biter, 88-83.
In the first half Asbury shot well and sprinted out to a 10-1 lead by the 15:42 mark. They maintained the lead over the next five minutes and took their largest lead at 32-21 on a break- away bucket at 7:11.
The Lady Eagles battled back behind the leadership of sophomore Ariel Nickell and senior Bailey Gabbard. Over the remainder of the half the duo combined for twenty of the next twenty-two ALC points to close the half on a 22-12 run, reducing Asbury’s lead to just one point (44-43).
In the second half Asbury pulled out to a six-point lead (59-53) with 13:59 to go, but, ALC went on an 11-4 run to take their first lead of the game at 64-63.
The game remained close as time was running out, but Asbury made some big shots in the closing minutes combined with several key free throws giving Asbury the victory.
Nickell poured in 35 points on 10-20 field goals and 13-15 free throws. She also added 12 rebounds and 2 blocks. Gabbard connected on 5-8 from behind the arc and chipped in with 15 points. Sophomore Courtney Crowder and senior Nikki Durman contributed 9 and 8 points, respectively. Senior Sarah Burchell handed out 7 assists.
The stats show just how closely matched the two clubs were. ALC shot 48% (26-53) to AU’s 46% (34-73) from the floor and shot 85.7 % (24-28) from the charity stripe to Asbury’s 93.3% (14-15). Both squads had 32 rebounds each.
Post-season play for the number three seeded Lady Eagles will begin Saturday at 3 p.m. when they host Midway College at the Grady Nutt Athletic Complex. The semi-finals and championship games will be played at Berea College be- ginning Monday February 27. The winner of the ALC-Midway contest will likely play the #2 seeded IU-Southeast ladies team at 5:30 p.m.