AIKEN, S.C. – Fifth-seeded Lander upset No. 3 seed USC
Aiken 64-53 Sunday afternoon in the Peach Belt Conference
Tournament Women’s Championship game in the USCA Convocation
Center.
With the victory, Lander captured its second straight Peach Belt
Conference tourney title. The Lady Bearcats became the first team
to accomplish the feat since Columbus State claimed back-to-back
championships in 2000 and 2001.
LU earned the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament,
while USC Aiken will likely earn an at-large berth in the NCAA
Southeast Regional.
Freshman guard Mukia Myrick paced Lander (20-10) with 17 points,
Shannon McKever booked 11 points and eight rebounds and freshman
guard Jasmine Judge added 10 points.
Morgan Johnson and Kendra Chandler tallied 17 points each for USC
Aiken (22-11). Johnson snagged eight rebounds and Chandler netted
three steals.
The Lady Pacers, who were making their second-ever championship
game appearance and first since 2001, jumped out ahead early,
largely due to the play of Johnson and Chandler, who combined for
19 of USCA’s 22 first-half points. Johnson had 11 first-half
points and seven rebounds, while Chandler added eight points.
The Lady Bearcats, playing in their fifth tourney title game, were
saddled with early foul trouble. All-conference performer McKever
picked up two fouls in the first 1:46 of the game. LU’s bench
picked up the slack, however, with freshman center Kaylyn Small
posting six points and six boards.
A Myrick jumper forced a 30-all tie at the 16:09 mark and sparked
the Lady Bearcats to a 12-2 run. A Judge 3-pointer pushed the Lady
Bearcats out a 42-32 lead before the Lady Pacers responded with a
bucket from Johnson. Myrick countered with a trey and Brittni
Johnson canned a 3-pointer at the 5:54 mark for a 51-35 LU
advantage – its largest of the game.
Aiken answered with six straight, the last on a Johnson basket at
the 3:55 mark, before a 3-point play from Myrick stemmed the tide.
Aiken never got closer than nine the rest of the way.
Lander shot 44.0 percent from the field to just 35.8 percent for
USCA and outrebounded the Lady Pacers 41-26.
A sophomore from Florence, S.C., McKeever was named the
Tournament’s Most Valuable Player. Also named to the
all-tournament squad were Columbus State’s Phebe Smith,
Clayton State’s Shanrika Hardeman, USC Aiken’s Kendra
Chandler and Morgan Johnson, along with Lander’s Jasmine
Judge.
Boxscore
PBC Tournament Game Quotes – Game 17 –
Women’s Championship
USC Aiken Head Coach
Mike Brandt:
“Give a lot of credit to Lander. They played with a lot of
confidence and very hard. If you are playing with an NCAA
Tournament on the line with a sense of urgency, that’s an
advantage. If there were loose balls, they got them. If there were
tough rebounds, they got them.”
“I told them that are only eight teams going to the regional,
and logistically we should be one of those teams.”
“They did a nice job on Meredith (Legg). That got to her and
she got a little frustrated. But we had a lot of lay-ups that we
missed, and a lot of shots that we normally make and we
didn’t make.”
“We’ve had some ups and downs, but we made a great run
here in the end to put ourselves in position to make the
NCAAs.”
“Lander has a lot depth and talent, and that confidence is a
lot to build on. They came through like a buzzsaw and ran through
this tournament.”
Guard Kendra Chandler
“We missed a lot of lay-ups, myself included. But their
defense was pretty good.”
“We can’t take nothing for granted. We need to come
back now ready to play like we did against Georgia College and
Clayton.”
Lander head coach Kevin Pederson:
“We are surprised. None of us expected this. We knew we had
the talent and we were going to build it the right way. If we
believed we could win that first game, we would be here today.
Aiken has an outstanding team, and Mike does a wonderful job
here.”
“For this young team to get this experience is invaluable.
This is one of the best because we didn’t see this
coming.”
“Last year, we were a poor defensive team. We knew how to
out-score people, but we couldn’t play defense. But look at
Jasmine (Judge). The top three 3-point shooters hit only five
3-point baskets in three games, and that was under her watch. What
an outstanding job.”
“We can run with you, bang with you and go inside and
outside. Those 3s in the second half was a tremendous momentum
shift for us.”
“This by far was our best job as a coaching staff when it
comes to working with players and getting the most out of
them.”
Sophomore center Shannon
McKeever:
I knew we could compete. We had to make sure the younger players
had to know the importance of being here at the end of the season.
Baseball
About the PBC
