Lady Lions rally past Columbia

Friday, January 1, 1904

Sarah Newton's free throw with four seconds left and Morgan Burnette's subsequent steal gave Bryan College a 79-78 win over visiting Columbia (S.C.) College in Appalachian Athletic Conference women's basketball Saturday in Dayton.

Bryan, which is 8-1 after winning only 10 games last season, bounced back from a loss to Tennessee Wesleyan in Wednesday's league opener and a 16-point deficit with nine minutes to go Saturday.

Anna Thomas began the comeback with a putback and scored 16 of her game-high 28 points in the final 8:53. She also had 10 rebounds before fouling out with 22 seconds left, when two free throws by the Fighting Koalas' Angelique Kenee Green tied the score at 78.

Sara Barnett scored 20 points and Mercedes Owens added 10 for Bryan. Krystal Morissette had 22 points and 14 rebounds and Krystle Remigio had 19 points, eight assists and five steals for Columbia (4-7, 0-2).

Tim Fortenberry had 19 points and four 3-pointers and grabbed nine rebounds for Bryan's Lions, but they lost 66-59 to visiting Young Harris. Vince Martin had 18 points with four 3s and Steven Viterbo and Michael Matta scored 15 apiece for the Georgia school.

Tennessee Wesleyan divided an AAC doubleheader at Union, the TWC women losing 63-55 but the men winning 68-58 in the matchup of Bulldogs. Lindsey Waters had 25 points and 11 rebounds for Union's women; Cody Houck led Wesleyan with 19. Desmond Crisp scored 24 points, E'Jay Ward had 11 assists and six steals and Quincy Scates and Matt Harper had 14 points each and 13 and nine rebounds for the TWC guys.

Lee split with Spring Hill in an SSAC doubleheader in Mobile, the Cleveland school winning 87-57 in the women's game but losing 77-62 in overtime in the men's. Hollie German scored 16 points and Angela Spann had 13 plus five assists for the Lady Flames (9-0, 4-0).

Alex Wells and Ryan Westbrooks scored 17 points apiece and Tyrone Caldwell added 12 in defeat for the Flamse (4-2, 2-2), while Jake Thelen had 21 points and 10 rebounds for Spring Hill (6-2, 3-1), which overcame a nine-point halftime deficit and outscored Lee 16-1 in the extra five minutes.

Emory, ranked 10th in NCAA Division III, improved to 7-0 with a 79-53 win over visiting Covenant, which got 15 points from Colton McGriff and seven rebounds from Joey Danek. Jake Davis had 19 points and Michael Friedberg blocked six shots for the Eagles, who held the Scots to 31.3 percent shooting.

Cleveland State lost two road TCCAA doubleheaders this weekend, the Lady Cougars falling 75-31 at Volunteer State and 67-44 at Motlow and the Cougars losing 84-70 and 87-80. Hannah Brown had 11 points for the Lady Cougars (4-8, 0-6) in Friday's game and Jessica Harper had 12 on Saturday, when Callisha Johnson scored 13 for Motlow.

Travis Jones, Keith Johnson, Nick Ross and Barry Griffin scored 19, 17, 16 and 14 points for the Cougars (6-4, 2-4) at Motlow, while Michael Tomlin and John Taylor had 14 each for the Bucks. Jones, Ross and Griffin scored 17, 16 and 14 at Vol State, which got 28 from David Woodard.

The Georgia Northwestern women lost 66-61 in overtime in Rome against Johnson, but the Georgia Northwestern men won 72-62 in Rossville against the same Knoxville school. Randy Boyd scored 18 points and Alex Miller and Justin Dempsey added 14 and 12 for the Bobcats, countering 23 by Johnson's Ricky Bower. Boo McPherson and Jasmine Heath led the Lady Cats with 20 and 17, but Chelsea Sinbeck had 29 for Johnson.

The Tennessee Temple men's team lost 90-77 to Asbury on Friday in Berea's tournament and played the host team Saturday.