Jimmies women's hoops struggles shooting 81-66 loss to Mayville
Nov. 2—JAMESTOWN — The University of Jamestown went ice cold early in the second half and it cost them in an 81-66 loss to Mayville State University on Thursday, Nov. 2, at Harold Newman Arena.
Both teams struggled shooting in the first quarter as the Jimmies (1-1) shot 8-for-20 and the Comets shot 4-for-19 as the Jimmies took a 19-10 lead into the second. The teams woke up in the second quarter as they scored a combined 38 points as the Comets (3-0) took a 35-32 lead. The Comets were helped by Jimmies' turnovers as they scored 15 points off 10 Jimmies turnovers. The Jimmies meanwhile scored three points off three Comets turnovers.
The Comets took their first lead of the day 28-27 before the Jimmies immediately responded to take a 30-28 lead on a Kate Busek three, one of four threes the Jimmies hit in the first half.
The Jimmies went ice cold in the third quarter as they missed their last shot in the second and proceeded to miss their first 11 shots of the second half. Over that run, the Comets were able to stretch their lead out from 35-32 to 54-35. The run was ended when Sarah Lenz hit a three to cut the deficit to 53-38 with 3:08 to go in the third quarter. The Jimmies picked it up from there over the last three minutes of the quarter as they went 2-for-2 with both shots coming from Kate Cordes who finished with nine points.
"What was a little more frustrating was how we handled it," Jimmies head coach Thad Sankey said. "I felt like we lost the confidence and the energy pieces that we had and I also feel like it crept into our defense. We gave up 28 points in the third quarter and that's a bigger deal than not scoring."
The Jimmies' Kia Tower hit a three early in the fourth to cut the deficit to 63-48, which was as close as it would be until Lily Meincke hit a jumper with 1:44 to go in the game to make it a 79-64 game. The Jimmies finished the game shooting 34% from the field and 43% from three. The Comets finished the game scoring 19 points off 13 Jimmies turnovers. The Jimmies scored five points off eight Comets turnovers.
"They have a good defensive team and Mayville's got a team that's gonna do some really good things in their league and they have a really veteran team," Sankey said. "They put us in tough positions, tough passing positions and that's something we didn't handle well."
The Jimmies return to the court at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 7, when they go to Dickinson State.
MSU 81, UJ 66
MSU: 10 25 28 18 — 81
UJ: 19 13 13 21 — 66
