by Kyle Lewis
JACKSON, Miss. — The Mississippi College women’s basketball team snapped a four-game slide with a 55-51 Gulf South Conference victory over the University of West Florida. The win gives MC (2-4, 1-2 GSC) its first win in conference play this season. UWF falls to 1-3 on the campaign and 1-2 in league play.
The victory is the first over the Argonauts since Feb. 15, 2020.
“Absolutely great team win. Everyone contributed and we played so hard. This team continues to show that we are getting better,” said head coach Greg Long. “We had some great individual performances tonight, but it is the intangibles of the game that won it.”
A trio of Choctaw scored in double figures led by Brett Gardner with a season-high 12 points. It is the first time in double digits this season for the Batesville, Ark., native. Juniors Kyiah Julian and Taylor Ben (Mississippi Choctaw) each joined Gardner in double figures with 11 points each. It marks the fifth this season for Julian and 25th of her career and the second time this season for Ben and her fourth career.
Julian also paced the Navy and Gold on the glass with eight rebounds, which marks a career-high for the Greenwood, Ark., product.
MC shot 41.8 percent from the floor, including 31.3 from behind the arc. The Choctaw held UWF to 27.8 percent from the field and a 23.8 clip from the 3-point line. The Argos outrebounded MC 44-31. It marks the second time this season the Navy and Gold have been outrebounded this season (at Union on Nov. 17).
The Choctaw trailed by three points at the end of the first 10 minutes, but grabbed a 27-24 lead at the intermission after outscoring the Argonauts 17-11 in the second period. Dezirae King gave MC a four-point advantage with a 3-pointer at the 2:37 mark in the second, but UWF went on a run to take a 24-23 lead with 1:24 left before the half. MC responded with back-to-back buckets in the paint from Gardner to give it the three-point lead at the break.
The Navy and Gold expanded its lead in the third by outscoring the Argos for the second consecutive quarter and posted the only double-digit lead of the game (46-35) at the 8:49 mark in the game as Gardner scored again in the paint. MC outscored the Green and Blue 28-16 in the paint for the game.
UWF cut the deficit to within three points on two different occasions – the final coming with two ticks on the clock – but Julian knocked down the front end of a pair of free throws with one second left to give the four-point victory.
