Qualls Leads Lady Boll Weevils in Loss to Southern Nazarene

Courtesy UAM Athletics Department

MONTICELLO — Southern Nazarene came back from an 11-0 deficit in the first five minutes of the contest to defeat the University of Arkansas at Monticello women’s basketball team by a final score of 61-52 inside Steelman Fieldhouse.

Junior guard Ashley Qualls made all of her eight field goal attempts in the first half for a total of 17 points throughout the first 20 minutes, including five layups in UAM’s quick start in the first five minutes of the opening period. SNU then began chipping away at UAM’s big lead, using a 12-2 scoring run to trim the deficit to just five points at the 12:08 mark of the first half.

SNU guard Oumoul Thiam, the Great American Conference’s leading scorers, made a pair of free-throws at the 5:04 mark of the first half to force the game’s first tie and give the Crimson Storm (6-7, 3-4 GAC) its first lead. SNU later posted a 7-0 scoring run to put the Storm up by six with 2:41 remaining in the first half.

After trailing by one point at the halftime break, UAM (2-10, 0-7 GAC) used a layup from freshman Cinderella Linnear in the first minute of the second half to give the Cotton Blossoms a 32-31 lead, the team’s last lead of the contest. SNU built its lead to nine points at the 12:54 of the second half, and later gained its largest lead of the game on a 10-2 scoring run, capped off by a layup from Annie Kassongo at the 4:42 mark to put the Crimson Storm on top by 11 at 53-42.

The Cotton Blossoms trimmed SNU’s lead to three points with just over a minute remaining in regulation before SNU closed out the contest with eight unanswered points for the nine-point victory.

As a team, UAM shot 31 percent from the field (20-of-65), 25 percent on three-pointers (2-of-8) and 59 percent on foul shots (10-of-17). SNU shot 37 percent from the field (23-of-62), 15 percent on three-pointers (3-of-20) and 92 percent on foul shots (12-of-13)

UAM’s Qualls led all scorers with a career-high 19 points after making 9-of-10 field goal attempts. Freshman Jordan Goforth chipped in with 15 points and seven rebounds.

SNU’s Annie Kassongo led all scorers with 20 points and nine rebounds. Oumoul Thiam added 14 points, while Aminata Fall led the rebounding category with 17.

The Cotton Blossoms are off this weekend and next face Arkansas Tech at home next Thursday, January 17. Tipoff is set for 5:30 p.m. at Steelman Fieldhouse.