Lady Bucs steamroll the quarterfinals and advance to the next round

By WVUA 23 Digital Reporter Jeremy Bryant

Shelton State Community College women’s basketball’s success continues to roll after hosting a conference rival in the first game of the ACCC tournament quarterfinals. They defeated the Coastal Alabama-South Sun chiefs 92-36  Tuesday.

The Lady Bucs dictated the tone and pace for most of the game, as they never lost the lead. They started out on a 10-0 scoring run before the Sun Chiefs put themselves on the scoreboard, but the Lady Bucs never looked back.

Taylor Smith got hot early and often throughout the game. She scored 7 points in the first quarter to help the Lady Bucs to a 50-15 first half lead. She did even more damage in the second half, seeming as though the Sun chiefs could not find the slippery guard on defense. Smith strung together 9 points in less than four minutes to begin the second half; She led all players in scoring finishing with 20 points.

Coastal Alabama had a lackluster first half, but got a little momentum started by trading 3-point shots with Shelton State to start the second half. After Smith’s hot scoring run, the Sun Chief’s Asia Thompson forced a steal that led to a break away layup, followed by Shelton having a miscue on the inbound to force another turnover. The crowd began to silence as the Lady Bucs seemed to become frustrated.

The momentum did not last long, shortly after the Lady Bucs began to separate themselves and only allowed 4 points for the remainder of the third quarter. They blew the lead open to 58 points ahead in the middle of the fourth quarter.

Coastal Alabama was managed to hold their opponents to only 32% shooting from three-point land, but were bullied on the low-block as Shelton State ripped off 46 of their 92 points in the painted area.

Coastal Alabama ends their season on a three-game losing streak, finishing with a 9-16 record.

Shelton State improves to 27-1 on the season with the win, and will go on to the next round as they await their next opponent in the ACCC tournament semifinals. They will play again on their homecourt March 3 with the chance to advance to the ACCC championship game Friday at 4 p.m.