BIRMINGHAM, AL – A slow start came back to hurt the Northwest Mississippi Community College women's basketball team (9-5) as they dropped their first road game of the season in a 75-64 loss to Lawson State Community College (7-8) on Wednesday night.
"Hats off to Lawson, they did a great job with their game plan and that's why they deserved the win tonight," Head Coach Lataryl Williams said. "I just didn't think we closed the game like we should have. They made the plays that we didn't and that's why they came out on top."
The game started out slowly for the Rangers who only had had one field goal for the first nine minutes of the game and saw Lawson State surge out to a 22-3 advantage and taking a 24-8 lead into the second quarter.
Williams said it was a good learning moment for the team after the opening surge from the Cougars to get them ready for tough conference games in the next few months.
"I told them we will have to play conference road games and there are going to be three-hour bus rides, and we have to be able to get off of the bus and compete. Let's not look at this as the game being over. There is a lot of time left and let's keep attacking them one possession at a time," he said.
Northwest did find that groove again in the second quarter and began to chip away at the Cougars advantage thanks to five quick points from Mitchell and a pair of and-one plays inside from Alorian Story and closed the gap to single digits with three minutes to go in the first half.
Lawson State was able to put a stopper on the bleeding for the rest of the second quarter, pushing the lead up to as high as 16 before settling for a 42-29 lead at the break.
The Mitchell and Story show continued in the third quarter as the Rangers looked to keep feeding the hot hands as the duo combined for 17 of the 19 points in the quarter for Northwest, but every push from the Rangers was answered by the Cougars and the lead held at 58-48 going to the final quarter.
Midway through the fourth, Northwest was able to trim the game down to a 66-61 score with three minutes to go, but that would be the high-water mark for the Rangers who saw a 7-0 run from Lawson State seal the 75-64 win as NWCC fell in their final conference game of the season.
"We just need to learn from our mistakes after going and watching film and get ready for conference play on Monday. Lawson did a really good job of attacking us and putting pressure on us by getting downhill and that's something we talked about before this game. We just didn't do a good job of keeping them out of the paint," Williams said.
Mitchell led the way for the Rangers with 32 points, adding four rebounds and a pair of steals. Story picked up her 10th double-double of the season with a 20-point, 14-rebound effort while stacking up four blocks inside.
Also contributing across multiple categories was Layla Hampton who had a balanced game with seven points, ten rebounds, and five assists.
Northwest struggled on the offensive side to find consistent shooting and the slow start didn't help a 31 percent night from the field, and only shooting 24 percent from three. They also weren't able to get to the foul line as regularly as the Cougars, only going 8-14 in the game.
The loss rounds out the non-conference schedule for the Rangers as they prepare to open the MACCC schedule on Monday, January 12 against East Mississippi Community College. The Rangers defeated the Lions on 67-55 on December 4 in Scooba in a non-conference game. It also snaps a four-game winning streak for the Rangers.
Keep up with Northwest women's basketball all season long by following nwccrangers.com or with Ranger social media accounts.
