Alexis Horton strikes on offense during the Pensacola State Classic Tournament. Photo By: Brianne Kuhnhausen
By: Ally Doty
The Pensacola State women’s basketball team participated in the Pensacola Classic Tournament on December 13th and 14th at the Lou Ross Center.
Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” rang off the gymnasium walls Friday, Dec. 13 as PSC and Southern Union State Community College flocked towards the court to warm up before the game.
“It should be a good game,” PSC Coach Leah Drury said.
It started out as a rush of blue and green, when PSC’s sophomore Alexis Horton pushed through SUSCC for the first two points of the game followed by the first foul of the game by Lady Pirate, Mariah Hopkins. It was a low-scoring affair during the game’s first few minutes.
Tiarra Pollnitz made a steal at 13:03 but was fouled at half court by Jasmin Lucas that resulted in two free throws for the Pirates. Pollnitz shot two, but missed both of her shots. The score remained 9-8 PSC.
The Pirates were quick on their rebounds under the net throughout the game, but had a tough time landing points off the rebounds. Deja Clay led SUSCC with (HOW MANY) rebounds.
Scoring was low throughout the first half of the game, but fouls were countless.
Lady Pirate Shormari Kendrick pushed Tierra Murray out of bounds, forcing the refs to call a foul on her and Murray made only one of two free throws, bringing the score to 16-12, PSC.
There were eight more fouls the remainder of the half between both teams.
After time ran down, both squads returned to the locker room for halftime after a hard twenty minutes of play, the score 33-29, PSC.
The Lady Pirates came out thirsty for their first win of the tournament after halftime and scored ten points in three minutes, not giving SUSCC any room to breathe.
There was high intensity for both teams throughout the second half; PSC going two minutes without any points at all, but kept an insurmountable lead. Their defense dominated SUSCC forcing them to call a timeout at 13:00, well behind PSC with the score 52-35.
Adjacent to the first half, fouls were constantly called between both teams as time dwindled down, but the Pirates were kept building their lead to eventually win the game 76-51.
“It wasn’t our best performance,” Coach Drury said after the win. “We played a little sloppy at times but those are things we are working on. Let’s hope we come out tomorrow and play better.”
The Lady Pirates came out Saturday night for their second game in the Pensacola State Classic Tournament ready to battle Jacksonville’s Florida State Community College. It was a tougher match than the night before.
Mariah Hopkins scored first in the game by making a two-pointer in the first minute and then she took the lead back again for PSC at 15:02, 14-13 PSC. The game was going back-and-forth when FSCC took a timeout at 9:14, after taking the lead over the Pirates by one point.
Alexis Horton proved she had her eyes set on the win when she stole the ball at 8:43 and sank two points, but PSC was still behind.
Possession bounced back and forth between both teams with high intensity and clean play.
The last play of the half, Alexis Horton blocked a FSCC shot attempt as the buzzer sounded and the score remained tied 41-41.
Momentum changed at the start of the second half and PSC seemed like they just were not into the game that much. FSCC poured it on and used excellent defense forcing PSC into taking pour shots.
The Pirates had twelve fouls in the second half, allowing the majority of FSCC’s points to come off of free throws. FSCC held PSC and prevented them from scoring for six long minutes.
PSC had to call timeout at 5:36, down fourteen points and not much room left to come back for the win.
The FSCC pressure continued the whole second half causing PSC to lose their second tournament match 86-67.
The Lady Pirates have a 10-7 overall record and look forward to beginning their conference match-ups this month.
