COLUMBIA, Ky. – Women's basketball clinched the No. 4 seed in the Mid-South Conference Tournament with a 92-84 victory Saturday afternoon in the regular season finale. The (RV) Bears (18-11, 11-7 MSC) will now face this Blue Raiders (19-11, 9-9 MSC) team again next weekend during the quarterfinal round of the conference tournament as Lindsey Wilson is locked into the No. 5 seed.
Alannah Sheets (SR, Leon, W. Va.) put an exclamation on her MSC Scoring Champion crown for the regular season with a game-high 37 points. Sheets is the first Shawnee State player since the Bears joined the Mid-South Conference in 2010-11 to lead the league in scoring. She finished with a regular season average of 20.7 points per game. She has scored 20 or more points in five straight games and nine different times overall this season. Sheets got 24 of her 37 points on eight 3-pointers on the afternoon. Her eight treys tied the school record which is also held by three other individuals. The most recent player to hit eight 3-pointers in a game was Whitney Williams on February 15, 2010 against Mount Vernon Nazarene.
The other three members of the senior class also finished with double figure scoring totals in their final regular season games. Diane Abbady (SR, Ivory Coast, West Africa) scored 22 points and pulled down 18 rebounds to claim the MSC Rebounding Crown. This marks the second time in the past three years (Alex Pohl in 2011-12) that an SSU player has earned this distinction. Abbady also led the MSC in double-doubles with 11th today. Priscila Santos (SR, Sao Paulo, Brazil) finished with 15 points, while Catrice Mitchell (SR, Columbus, Ohio) added 13 off the bench. The only other player to score in the game for the Bears was Abby Feuchter (SO, Cincinnati, Ohio). She chipped in with five points, while adding seven assists.
Shawnee State built leads of six, seven and eight points at different times during the opening half of play. However, each time the it built up those advantages , the Blue Raiders would pull the game back within a single point or tie the contest. After 20 minutes of play, the Bears were holding a 45-40 edge.
The Bears again built a lead of eight points just under three minutes into the second half but Lindsey Wilson refused to go away and tied the score on five separate occasions in the second half. The sixth and final tie of the afternoon came with 9:19 left in the game and the teams knotted at 69-all.
SSU would score the next seven points and with 4:37 left in the game it lead by 10, 82-72. The Blue Raiders would get no closer than six points for the rest of the game. The only time LWC came that close was when it hit a 3-pointer with 17 seconds left in the game before free throws from Sheets would make it a 92-84 final. The Bears did lead by as many as 11 points down the stretch on three separate occasions. The final time they held an 11-point edge came with 1:10 showing on the clock.
The Bears dominated the points in the paint to a 44-24 advantage. They also led 20-11 in second chance points.
Women's basketball will open up the Mid-South Conference Tournament next Friday against these familiar foes. That game will tip be the second game on Friday. It is scheduled for a 5 p.m. EST (4 p.m. CST) tip. The Mid-South Conference will be hosted by Cumberland University.
