Lady Knights fall into early hole, can’t recover in loss to Montreat

LAURINBURG — It’s hard to win in any sport. But, in basketball, it’s especially difficult when a team has an interim head coach and just seven players.

Not much else could make that situation worse … except when the ball won’t go through the net.

That was what took place at Harris Court Wednesday evening when the St. Andrews Knights women’s basketball team fell 74-38 to the Montreat Cavaliers and shot just 11-for-58 (19%) for the game and 12 of 21 (57.1%) from the free-throw line. The loss is the Lady Knights’ 10th in a row.

“We just couldn’t make shots,” said Randall Johnson, who will be St. Andrews’ interim head coach for the remainder of the season. “Our two best scorers were just off. Ashley (Starks), Samantha (Tougher); those are our two best shooters. I think we were 2-for-11 from 3, and then we gave up 10 offensive rebounds in the first half. And that’s the game in a nutshell. So, I thought we would chip at it a little better in the second half, but we kind of got tired, and we just couldn’t score today.”

Starks shot 4 of 20 from the field, 2 of 12 from downtown and 1 of 5 on her free throws to total 11 points, along with four rebounds; Tougher only attempted nine 3-pointers, missing all of them, and two free throws, both of which she connected on, to finish with two points.

St. Andrews (3-10, 2-10 Appalachian Athletic Conference) fell behind 7-0 early on, before Starks put the Lady Knights on the board with a layup almost four minutes in. Over the next nearly 4 1/2 minutes, Montreat (9-7, 6-4 AAC) blasted St. Andrews with 10 consecutive points, but Emily Cruz broke the scoring streak with two free throws followed by a 3-pointer, and A.J. Price added two more points at the free-throw line to make St. Andrews’ deficit 17-9 with 10 minutes down.

“A lot of it was us missing and then giving up wide-open 3s,” Johnson said on why his team fell behind early. “They (the Cavs) made a wide-open 3; if they didn’t make the 3, it was an offensive rebound, and they were getting stick-backs. They probably got maybe six ‘and ones,’ if you think about it, in that first half. I know alone they got that many. They got the offensive rebound, scored, we’d foul them, they’d make the free throw. So, all that stuff compounds, and it’s kind of like a landslide. Once one of those things happen, it’s going to keep going and keep going.”

Just 12 seconds into the second quarter, Cruz made a corner 3, putting the Lady Knights down by five. But that’d be half their point total for the period as they scored just six points — the other three points coming on a Hailey Crozier free throw and a layup by Price — while giving up 16, making it a 33-15 halftime lead for the visitors.

”My (halftime) message was cut it in half,” Johnson said. “Nine stops (are) the total stops we needed in the second half at some point in the game. Nine, where we got a stop and then scored and had to get another stop. We just couldn’t find it. We couldn’t get a stop, couldn’t get a stop when we needed to and score. When we did get stops, we couldn’t score. So it’s a bad combination when that happens.”

Twenty-seven seconds after the start of the second half, Aebri Graham pushed Montreat’s lead to 36-15 with a trey. After she made another about a minute later, Starks connected on her lone free throw and a 3-pointer before a 10-1 burst from Montreat made it 49-20; St. Andrews scored six points before the end of the third to cut its deficit to 49-26.

The Cavs scored nine of the opening 11 fourth-quarter points and reached a 60-30 lead at the 6:03 mark. From that point, till triple zeroes showed on the scoreboard, Price hit a trio of free throws, and Starks and Cruz dropped in a layup each to close the scoring for the Lady Knights.

“We’ve just got to find our way,” Johnson said. “We’ve got seven (players). Hopefully, we get one more person we’ll add on Saturday. I think she’ll help us. So, with that being the case, we’re just going to keep plugging. My thing is, I tell them, ‘Just keep fighting.’ And they don’t quit, so that’s the main thing. We’ll turn the corner eventually. Still have 12 games to go.”

Cruz recorded a double-double for St. Andrews, with 14 points on an efficient 5-for-10 (2-for-3 from deep) shooting and 13 rebounds, while Price flirted with one, posting 10 points and nine rebounds; Madison Larrimore had five rebounds, two steals and a block.

Virginia Edmondson and Vaniyah Petty had 19 points apiece, with Edmondson also having four assists and three steals and Petty grabbing 19 rebounds to lead Montreat; Graham scored nine points; Cierra Lail had 10 rebounds and two blocks; Katie Alexander had three steals; Rymiah Sanders had four assists and Grace Rinaldo had five rebounds.

St. Andrews hosts Bryan on Saturday.