The women's basketball program at Shawnee State got a 14-point effort on just five shots from Chianne Gloster and received 10 points, seven assists, five rebounds and three steals from Sanaya Gregory, who played in all 40 minutes of a River States Conference contest between the Bears and Saint Mary-of-the-Woods Saturday afternoon, but Shawnee State fell to SMWC, 63-60, Saturday afternoon at Waller Gymnasium in Portsmouth.
Shawnee State held Saint Mary-of-the-Woods to an 0-of-15 shooting mark from three-point range and a 17-of-52 mark from the field, but the Bears shot just 17-of-54 themselves, were outrebounded slightly by a 28-27 margin and, as a team, committed 19 turnovers to just five assists in the contest.
Gloster, Gregory deliver goods for Bears
Needing their production the entire way, Chianne Gloster and Sanaya Gregory each delivered in a much-needed way throughout Saturday afternoon's contest.
Gloster, who posted 14 points and three rebounds to head up the charge, went 4-of-5 from the field in an efficient outing by scoring five points off of the bench in the first frame to help the Bears take its largest lead of the game, 17-9, by scoring five straight points in a 43-second span between the 1:23 to 39-second mark of the opening quarter. Gloster and Gregory continued to produce as the duo combined for six of Shawnee State's 13 points in the second quarter to keep SSU in the mix.
Despite SSU later losing the lead and trailing by as much as a 37-30 margin at one point in the second half, Gloster and Gregory again stepped up as the duo combined to score 12 of Shawnee State's 15 points in the final frame including each of the Bears' first eight tallies in the quarter.
DeWayne Burroughs' group trailed by six points (51-45) to begin the fourth quarter and were behind by four points on six separate occasions in the final quarter, but Shawnee State battled back and had a chance to tie the game as a Gregory layup with four seconds left and Saint Mary-of-the-Woods' Brooklyn Jones' back end miss of two free throw attempts gave Gregory an opportunity to send the contest into overtime. However, her 35-foot three-pointer fell short, and the Bears dropped the River States Conference contest by the previously mentioned score.
Over her last four games, Chianne Gloster is averaging 10.5 points and 6.5 rebounds on 12-of-20 shooting from the field and 18-of-26 shooting from the free throw line. Gregory, meanwhile, after scoring more than six points or more just three times over her first 10 games, has scored seven or more points in eight out of Shawnee State's last 10 games including seven out of the Bears' last eight contests. The senior guard has also posted 18 assists over her last four games for a 4.5 assist per game average during that particular stretch of time.
Additional
Cianna Gloster's splendid start to the game, which featured a seven-point first-quarter tear, allowed the forward to finish with nine points and eight rebounds while Amiya Latham (nine points) and Emily Maynard (seven points) helped to stretch the defense as the pair combined to knock down five three-point field goals in the contest.
Shawnee State (13-8, 5-5 River States Conference) will return to action Tuesday evening at 5:30 p.m. for what will be a home matchup against West Virginia Tech, which commences another River States Conference doubleheader.
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