by Kyle Lewis
CLEVELAND, Miss. — The Mississippi College women’s basketball team opened the 2022-23 campaign with a 61-52 victory over LeMoyne-Owen College in the opening game of the Gulf South Conference-Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Crossover on Friday, Nov. 11 inside Walter Sillers Coliseum.
It marks the third straight, season-opening win for the Choctaws under head coach Greg Long and the sixth win in the series with the Lady Magicians and second consecutive.
“It was a great way to start the season. I thought we showed a lot of toughness, especially down the stretch,” said Long about his team’s performance. “I am proud of the energy and effort of these ladies. We are battling through some injuries early and people are playing different roles, but we are figuring things out as we go.”
A trio of Choctaw scored in double figures in the victory led by Taylor Ben (Mississippi Choctaw) with 15 points. Kyiah Julian added 12 points. It marks the 21st time Julian has scored in the double figures in her career. Karly Ivy rounded out the double-digit producers as she chimed in 10 points in her MC debut.
Freshman Keller Bigham paced the squad on the glass with seven rebounds and added two blocked shots. Julian added six boards.
MC, which led for nearly 35 of the 40 minutes, held a 32-19 lead at the intermission behind a 52.4-shooting clip from the field through the first 20 minutes of play, including going 4-for-10 from behind the arc.
The Navy and Gold grabbed its largest lead of the contest early in the third quarter, 15 points, behind a jumper just outside the paint from Julian. However, LOC answered with a 13-0 run to squeeze the deficit to within two points, 34-32, with just under five minutes to play in the period. MC pushed the lead back out to many as eight points. The Choctaw held the Purple and Gold at bay the remainder of the contest before walking away with the nine-point victory.
MC finished the night shooting 44.2 percent from the field, including a clip of 33.3 from behind the arc, and a stellar 94.7 percentage from the charity stripe on 18-of-19 shooting, which is the best under a Long coached-MC squad.
