SFA Roars Back in Third Quarter, Shuts the Book on Yale 67-57

Saturday, November 17

Nacogdoches, Texas

4:30 p.m.

Stephen F. Austin

Yale

SFA

SFA Roars Back in Third Quarter, Shuts the Book on Yale 67-57

11/17/2018 6:25:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

SFA outscores Yale 37-20 in second half in come form behind win

By: Kevin Meyer | Assistant Director of Athletic Media Relations

NACOGDOCHES, Texas – The Stephen F. Austin women's basketball team rallied from a halftime deficit to pull out a 67-57 victory over Yale on Saturday afternoon inside William R. Johnson Coliseum. Exploding for a 21-point third quarter, the 'Jacks roared back from trailing by seven at the break and outscored Yale 37-20 the rest of the way to earn the victory. The result concludes play for the Ladyjacks in the Preseason WNIT and moves them to 2-1 on the young season.

"We made some big adjustments with our defending, and we made an effort to actually lockdown", said SFA head coach Mark Kellogg. "To Yale's credit we knew they could pass, knew they would move the ball and we didn't really take them out of any rhythm in that first half whatsoever. The goal was to take them out of that rhythm in the second, limit their opportunities, and once we did that it helped us on the offensive end."

Chanell Hayes led the way with a game-high 23 points on 6-10 shooting from the field and 5-7 from beyond the arc. Imani Johnson and Riley Harvey chipped in 12 and 11 points, respectively.

After taking an early 5-0 lead to start the contest, the 'Jacks fell behind 10-7 on a three-point basket by Yale's Roxy Barahman, the first points of her game-high 26. Unfazed, the 'Jacks got back-to-back trifectas from Hayes and would take a 16-14 lead after the opening quarter.

The Bulldogs made a run of their own in the second quarter, first retaking the lead on a triple to open the frame and then slowly expanding that lead up to 10 (33-23) with three minutes remaining on a free throw by Barahman. A seven point run by the' Jacks, including a Hayes triple and a bucket by Aiyana Johnson, whittled the lead down to three momentarily, but Yale would carry a 37-30 edge into the halftime break with four quick points to end the second quarter.

"We only had four steals in the first half, and that's not what our identity is, so we just had to get back to some fundamental things", Kellogg added. "We got the lead right off those first two possessions in the third quarter, and as soon as we did that it was kind of "game on", and we could settle into our offense."

SFA burst out of the gates in the third quarter, scoring seven straight points to tie the game up at 37-37. A Yale basket momentarily stalled the run, before the 'Jacks poured in ten straight off trifetcas from Hayes and Brioenne Burns, and layups from Harvey and Marissa Banfield. Yale's second basket of the quarter with 2:34 remaining was followed in short succession by layups from Brianna Mitchell and Johnson, and SFA would lead 51-41 heading into the final quarter.

Yale would trim the lead to four points on four occasions in the final quarter, but several key steals in the final minutes helped SFA stave off the Bulldog run. The Ladyjacks would knock down seven free throws down the stretch to put the game on ice.

"Our bench wasn't great tonight from a shooting standpoint, but we got some good minutes from them when we needed it. I thought Riley Harvey was really good tonight, Chanell was shooting it at a high level,Imani's second half was tremendous and we needed every bit of that. Banfield had five steals, kind of ran the show, hit a big three late in front of our bench to give us a late boost, and Stephanie Visscher played what I thought was her best half since she's been here.

SFA is next in action with its true home opener on Tuesday night in William R. Johnson Coliseum, hosting Our Lady of the Lake at 5:00 p.m.

-SFA-