Ladyjacks Pull Away From Lions in Fourth Quarter , Stay Undefeated at Home with 83-61 Win

Saturday, December 16

Nacogdoches, Texas

8:00 p.m.

Stephen F. Austin

7-3

Texas A&M-Commerce

6-4

A&M Commerce

Stephen F. Austin

Ladyjacks Pull Away From Lions in Fourth Quarter , Stay Undefeated at Home with 83-61 Win

12/16/2017 10:33:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

SFA outscores A&M-Commerce 33-14 in fourth quarter to win at home

By: Kevin Meyer| Assistant Director of Athletic Media Relations

NACOGDOCHES, Texas – After finding themselves in a pitched battle through the opening three quarters of Saturday's game against Texas A&M-Commerce, the Stephen F. Austin Ladyjacks shirked the pressure and staved off the Lions in an 83-61 victory. A pivotal fourth-quarter scoring surge put the game out of doubt for SFA, which improved to 5-0 at home this season and 7-3 overall on the year.

Chanell Hayes poured in a career-high 24 points (10-17 FG) to lead SFA on the night, while Stevi Parker finished with 18 points and nine rebounds. Lovisa Brunnberg added 11 points off the bench for the 'Jacks, who outscored the Lions 28-12 in the final quarter of play. The victory was a milestone result for SFA head coach Mark Kellogg, who reached the 300-win plateau for his career.

"Well it took too long to get going, so that was the disappointing thing," said Kellogg. "Our energy wasn't great, we didn't really have rhythm or flow. I thought they were beating us to a lot of 50/50 balls in the first half and they scored a lot of points on offensive rebounds or a loose ball that we didn't come up with. I thought once we cleaned that up, matched their intensity and took care of the ball things started to flip."

Without fear, the Lions opened the game going blow-for-blow with the hosts and having an upset bid on their minds. Hayes would open the scoring with a three-pointer at the eight-minute mark, as the two teams combined for a low-scoring opening stanza. Parker followed that up with a jumper, and a quick 5-0 lead blossomed for the Ladyjacks. Unfazed, Commerce powered back, and would claim their first lead (11-9) after Lions leading scorer Brianna Wise converted a layup and a foul shot with 4:58 left to go in the first quarter. After the teams swapped buckets several times to end the frame, leading to three ties in the final two minutes, the visitors would own a 21-19 lead after the opening quarter of play.

The back and forth play continued in the second quarter, as the Ladyjacks re-took the lead on a layup by Hayes at the 7:46 mark. Four points in a row for the Lions earned them back the lead, before Parker converted an old-fashioned three point play off an offensive rebound with 4:01 left. Her jumper with 1:41 left to go in the half would prove to be the final score before the halftime break, and marked the sixth tie of the contest at 32-32.

The overwhelming theme for the opening two quarters, the tight contest continued in the third quarter, as the teams battled to the eighth and ninth tie of the game at the 4:51 and 3:23 marks of the quarter, respectively. SFA looked to be pulling away after a trio of free throws by Parker and a Hayes layup turned a tie game into a five-point lead for the 'Jacks, but a small 4-0 run by the Lions nipped that in the bud. culminating in three-pointer by Artaejah Gay with 53 ticks left in the third quarter.

A layup by Parker to close out the third gave SFA a three-point lead heading into the fourth quarter, but with the way the game had gone to that point, no lead seemed to be safe for the home squad. What happened instead was a spectacular explosion of offense by SFA, as they out-strapped their opponents 13-0 to start the final quarter of play. Brunnberg began the frame with a trifecta, followed by a layup and free throw from Hayes. Hayes sank another layup to complete her own 5-0 scoring run, while a three-point play from Imani Johnson and a layup from Parker capped off the impressive run. Checking in for her first game action with 9:24 remaining in the quarter, Johnson was an immediate catalyst for the 'Jacks run, as she set up Hayes twice for easy buckets and finished off an old-fashioned three point play of her own as well. The junior made her first appearance of the season as a reserve in the contest, and finished with nine points in just eight minutes of action in the contest.

"Seeing the 21 assists was nice, that was something we hadn't done and we worked on making the extra pass all week," continued Kellogg. "I thought our ball movement was much better, it was nice to see Chanell Hayes get going as well as Stevi. It wasn't any one thing that worked well, but I thought the difference was that we turned them over and got some points off that, which is something we look to do."

Altogether, the 'Jacks shot 12-18 (.667) from the field and 8-8 from the line in the final quarter, and scored 13 points off nine Lion turnovers in the stanza. Hayes posted 10 of her game-high 24 in the fourth, making four of her six attempts from the field. For the contest, SFA shot an efficient 48.4 percent (31-64) from the field and 33.3 percent (7-21) from beyond the arc in the win. The 'Jacks were outrebounded by A&M-Commerce, but forced them into 32 turnovers and scored a total of 31 points off those takeaways.

SFA faces a quick turnaround, as they face Central Christian College on Tuesday, December 19 in William R. Johnson Coliseum. Tip-off for that contest is set for 11:00 a.m.

-SFA-