Belhaven Wins 69-63; Cronk Paces Scots with 15

MARYVILLE – A seven-point third quarter put Maryville in a bind against Belhaven, but the Scots found the right lineup combination and nearly came all the way back.

Belhaven prevailed 69-63 Saturday and walked out of the Cooper Athletic Center 8-4 overall and 4-2 in the CCS. Maryville dropped to 5-8 and 2-2.

Maryville trailed 52-39 entering the fourth quarter after being outscored 17-7 in the third, and then things got worse. Belhaven went in front by 17 points on three separate occasions, only to watch the new-look MC lineup put together a 17-2 run over a 4:33 stretch. The Scots pulled within 62-60 on a Courtney Farr free throw with 1:27 remaining.

Maryville head coach Darrin Travillian praised his closing lineup of Emma Huskey, Hailey Cronk, Anna Kate Bechman, Courtney Farr and Ella Haney for nearly pulling off a stunning comeback. The Scots outscored Belhaven 24-17 in the fourth quarter as a whole.

'Unbelievable Run'

"We put that group together with about seven minutes left and we were down 17, and they clawed like crazy until the buzzer," Travillian said. "We even had a couple of chances. They were unbelievable during that run.

"The ironic thing is we got outrebounded today for the first time in a while, and when we finally got it to the end down a couple of possessions, we had some missed free throws and missed shots where we didn't get those rebounds. Otherwise, that group was getting ready to pull off a win."

There were five ties and four lead changes, all in the first half. Belhaven led 35-32 at intermission.

Then it looked like Belhaven would run away in the third quarter, outscoring Maryville 17-7 and taking that 13-point lead into the final 10 minutes. Plus, the Scots played most of the fourth quarter without leading scorer Courtney Carruthers, who injured herself and scored just eight points in 28 minutes.

Maryville Athletics honored Carruthers before the game for scoring her 1,000th career point back in November.

LeFevers Lights It Up

Travillian praised the play of Huskey, who led the Scots with nine rebounds to go with seven points; and also Kinsee LeFevers, who provided an early spark off the bench with six first-quarter points. LeFevers entered Saturday's play without a point scored this season but was 3-of-5 in that early going and really lit a fire on the Maryville sideline.

"Kinsee every single day in the first player in the gym and literally the last to leave," Travillian said. "Every day in practice, she tries to win all her sprints. She hasn't seen a ton of playing time in her year-and-a-half here yet, but you're trying to teach the right lessons about doing things the right way and so the first sub off the bench today was Kinsee.

"And she came in and scored six points. Maybe I should play her more!"

Cronk scored a career-high 15 points for Maryville on 5-of-11 shooting, including 2-of-3 from downtown. Eleven of those 15 points came in the fourth quarter. She made all three of her free throw attempts and grabbed seven boards.

Rookie sensation Shantashia John played all 40 minutes and led Belhaven with 23 points. That's right on her conference-leading average of 22.3.

The Scots return to action Saturday against Piedmont and Sunday versus Huntingdon. Both games tip at 2 p.m.