by Niamani Carlyle-Hollis

The Lady Blazers basketball team looks to spark a winning streak at the complex tonight when they take on Mississippi College.

Last Saturday against Lee University, senior Maggie Davis put up a career high of 23 points and April Thomas added 21 points of her own, giving the team the ammo needed to take down the Lady Flames 64-63. With this win, the Lady Blazers were able to improve to a 10-11 overall, 6-9 in GSC play record.

During their first meeting, the Lady Blazers seemed too much for the Lady Choctaws of Mississippi College to handle. After a free throw made by April Thomas in the first 45 seconds of the game, the Lady Blazers never looked back and were able to maintain their lead for the rest of the game.

The Lady Choctaws were unable to score for over three minutes into the game before finally making a layup. April Thomas led the team in scoring, ending the night with 19 points and shooting 3-6 from behind the arc.

With Mississippi College heading this way to try to redeem themselves, assistant head coach Jennifer Grubbs explained the team’s defensive plan to defeat the Lady Choctaws.

“They are a really big team as far as height, so we have to do a great job with post play defensively and keep them up and off the lane as much as possible,” Grubbs said.

As far as their guard play was concerned, “They are extremely quick off the dribble, so we also have to make sure we do a good job of containing the dribble drive and not having to help as much, so that their post players are not left open for easy baskets,” Grubbs said. “Basically we have to play great individual defense, as well as great team defense in order to get a good outcome.”

In the first matchup the Lady Blazers were able to score 21 points off the turnovers made by the Lady Choctaws, while the Choctaws were only able to score 18 off of VSU.

As for the offense of the lady blazers, “We have to do a great job of utilizing our screen action,” Grubbs said. “Any screens that we set, we have to make sure that we come shoulder to hip off of it and put the ball in position so that we are able to get the ball to our scorers.”

The Lady Blazers were able to shoot 60 percent in the first half compared to MC’s 46 percent as well as 40 percent in the second half compared to MC’s 8 percent.

From behind the arc the Lady Blazers shot 28 percent in the first half and 50 percent in the second half, while MC shot 33 percent in the first half and 75 percent in the second half.

The Lady Blazers were able to lead by as much as 13 in the second half with 13:02 to go in the game.