Ashley Starks (33) gathers her dribble and gets ready to shoot the ball during the Knights’ matchup with Spartanburg Methodist College.
Andrew Smolar | The Laurinburg Exchange
Katie Moore defends Krystal Johnson (32) of Spartanburg Methodist during the first quarter of Wednesday’s game.
Andrew Smolar | The Laurinburg Exchange
Alexandria Barrino (23) shoots a free throw during the second half of St. Andrews’ loss to the Pioneers.
Andrew Smolar | The Laurinburg Exchange
The Knights huddle up before their Wednesday night home game against the Pioneers.
Andrew Smolar | The Laurinburg Exchange
LAURINBURG —The St. Andrews Knights women’s basketball team was defeated 62-51 at home by Spartanburg Methodist College (SMC) on Wednesday night. The Knights fall to 0-3 on the season with the loss while the Pioneers improve to 2-3 with the victory. It was the second time SMC has defeated St. Andrews this season, having also beaten them in Spartanburg back on Monday, Oct. 28. Head Coach Denise Hannah boiled down the loss to simply not executing the way she knows they have done in practice many times.
“Part of our issue is not retaining what we do in practice and carry it over into games, like trying to reinvent the wheel when we don’t need to,” Hannah said. “It makes it tough to win and do positive things if we don’t remember what we’re supposed to do carrying it over from practice to game time.”
The Knights were able to win the first quarter, outscoring the Pioneers 14-11 in the opening 10 minutes. St. Andrews found themselves trailing 8-4 at the 5:48 mark of the quarter but managed to rip off eight unanswered points over the next 3.5 minutes to go up 12-8. It was part of an overall 10-3 run through the end of the period.
The second quarter was not nearly as kind to St. Andrews as they only managed nine points compared to 22 for SMC. It would start off well as Jada Richardson made a jumper 21 seconds into the frame that extended the Knights advantage up to five (16-11), the biggest lead they would hold during the contest. There would then be no scoring by either team for about two minutes before the Pioneers really started to take control. After St. Andrews was in front 18-15 at the 7:02 mark, SMC fired off 11 unanswered points over the next minute and 23 seconds to go ahead 26-18. They would hold a 10-point edge (33-23) at halftime.
The Knights were able to (slightly) bounce back in the third quarter, getting 15 points to SMC’s 12. St. Andrews was able to trim the deficit in half pretty much immediately as Katie Moore got a layup and Londaisha Smith made a three-pointer to get the Knights within five (35-30) at the 7:22 mark. The Pioneers weren’t fazed, however, as they went on a 8-0 charge over the next three minutes of action to extend the lead up to 13 (43-30). St. Andrews was able to get the margin down to seven by the end of the period at 45-38, a solid outcome considering they trailed by as much as 13 just minutes earlier.
Unfortunately for the Knights, they couldn’t make enough plays in crunch time as they were outscored by SMC 17-13 over the final 10 minutes of action. The Pioneers started the quarter on a 10-2 surge over the first two minutes to quickly balloon the lead up to 15 (55-40), their largest advantage of the night. St. Andrews never seriously threatened them again, getting no closer to even the rest of the way than nine, which they did at the 5:43 mark when it was 55-46. SMC would lead comfortably the rest of the way en route to victory.
The Knights shot just 19-68 (27.9%) from the floor, 5-22 (22.7%) from three and 8-17 (47.1%) from the free throw line. They also committed 19 turnovers, which led to 21 SMC points. St. Andrews did have the advantage in second chance points (11-9), points in the paint (6-0) and rebounds (37-34). Hannah in particular wasn’t happy with the turnover problem, which has been an issue in all three of their games so far this season.
“We catch to shoot every single practice which is supposed to eliminate travels but we didn’t carry that over,” Hannah said. “One of our keys to win is 15 turnovers or less and we had 11 in the first half so we had the same predicament from our matchup earlier this year.”
Moore was the Knights’ leading scorer for the game with 16 points and also had seven rebounds and one block while Smith added 11 points, five rebounds and a steal off the bench. Richardson and Jamicia Davis led the team in rebounds and assists with 10 and six, respectively. Hannah was glad to see Moore get more involved as she has been battling a foot injury early in the season.
“I had to let her know why I recruited her and she responded,” Hannah said. “It was a much better performance from her tonight than it has been since the start of the season.”
St. Andrews will have until Saturday off before beginning a three-game road trip (which includes two conference games), starting with a matchup against USC Beaufort. The game is scheduled to start at 1:00 p.m. Hannah is not hitting the panic button as she knows there is a lot of basketball left to play but also wants her team to respond in the right way for the AAC games coming up on their schedule that will impact the conference standings.
“These games are tuneup games for conference play,” Hannah said. “Now it’s on them, it’s about a little bit of integrity and some heart.”