SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The King University women's basketball team got back in the win column on Tuesday night as they came back from a 14 point deficit to defeat Converse by a score of 54-59.
THE BASICS
FINAL SCORE: King University 54 – Converse University 49
LOCATION: Tom & Tracy Hannah Gym; Spartanburg, S.C.
RECORDS: 6-9 (4-3 Conference Carolinas) | Converse 3-11 (1-6 Conference Carolinas)
HOW IT HAPPENED
First Quarter
- King had their first points off back-to-back shots from Sarah Thompson and Ashley Allen to give the Tornado a three-point lead.
- Converse retook the lead before the timeout.
- Jaelyn West tied the game at 13 with just over a minute to go in the period before the Valkyries hit one more basket before the first quarter buzzer sounded.
- Alexa Gramann had four points in the opening ten minutes.
Second Quarter
- Le'Aije Ellington scored 8 unanswered in the middle of the second quarter to put King up by 4 just before the media timeout.
- Gramann hit an old-fashioned three point play for the Tornado's final points of the first half but Converse hit a layup as time expired.
Third Quarter
- The King offense struggled in the third period with Williams making the only basket as King fell behind by 13 points.
Fourth Quarter
- West got the scoring started in the fourth quarter with a driving layup.
- At the 6:28, Converse got their largest lead of the night at 48-36. Thompson and Gramann worked together to go on a 13-0 scoring run for King, with Thompson accounting for 11 of those points.
- Thompson's three-point shot with 29 seconds left, gave King the lead at 50-49 before the Tornado closed out the game going 4-4 from the charity stripe.
- Thompson scored 16 of her 19 total points in the final six minutes of the game.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- Sarah Thompson led all scorers with 19 points as she shot 5-11 from the field, including three buckets from beyond the arc. She also went 6-6 from the free throw line.
- Mariya Williams had a game-high 9 rebounds.
- Ashley Allen and Alexa Gramann each had 3 steals while combining for 17 points.
- As a team, King shot 37.2% from the field and 55.6 from three-point range. They also went 17-21 from the free throw line.
FOR THE FOES
- Tatiana Brown led the Valkyries with 10 points off the bench.
- Jordan Brown had 7 rebounds, 4 steals, and 4 assists. Zariyah Washington also dished out 4 assists.
- Converse scored 21 points off turnovers and 24 points inside the paint. They also outscored King 12-0 on fast break points and 23-5 off the bench.
UP NEXT
The Tornado will return home on January 18 as they host Chowan for a 2:00 p.m. tip off inside of the Student Center Complex.
