The University of the Virgin Islands Women’s basketball eked out a thrilling 68-67 victory over Huston-Tillotson in a game came down to the last possession on Friday night to move to 4-1 on the season behind the team’s best three point shooting night of the season.
After the first three quarters saw the leading team change just once, the fourth quarter had 13 lead changes.
UVI took back the lead for good with 3:35 left in the game after Kierra Neal made a lay-up for the Bucs. Melea Lovelace was fouled shooting a three-pointer on the next possession and knocked down all three free throws to give the Bucs a 66-62 lead with just under three minutes left in the game but Huston-Tilltson did not go away easily.
Huston-Tillotson’s Ilana Sanford made a pair of free throws with 1:15 left in the game to make the score 67-66. UVI’s Kaeani Berry made one of two free throw attempts with :43 seconds left to give UVI a 68-66 advantage.
Huston-Tillotson missed three shots in a row on the next offensive possession but retained possession after all three misses. After Huston Tilltson’s Traeli Calhoun missed a lay-up with six seconds left Irish Winn gained possession of the offensive rebound and was fouled on her layup attempt with three seconds left and had a chance to tie the game from the foul line. She made the first free throw attempt but missed the second one and UVI held onto a narrow victory.
Amber Appiah-Kubi and Neal both had 16 points for UVI while Lovelace had 14 points for the winning team. Sanford led Huston-Tillotson with a game high 17 points.
UVI made 7 of their 14 three point attempts, a season high 50 percent, a season high.
UVI started the game fast and scored the game's first twelve points, six of those points coming by virtue of a pair of three pointers by Appiah-Kubi, to establish an early lead.
After a timeout with 5:40 in the first quarter the Huston-Tillotson coach could be heard yelling “it’s 12-0, this is embarrassing” from across the gymnasium as his team broke the huddle. His team seemed to respond to the comment and scored five straight points to cut the deficit to 12-5 with 4:37 left in the first quarter.
At the end of the first quarter UVI regained their double digit advantage and led 22-12 going into the second quarter.
The Bucs lead grew to 15, 29-14, after Kaya Evans made a lay-up with just under seven minutes left in the first half but a Huston Tillotson 14-4 run to end the half cut the difference between the sides to five, 33-28, at halftime. UVI made five of their eight first half three point attempts.
UVI never led by more than five points in the third quarter and a Huston Tilltson 7-0 run gave the visitors their first lead of the ball game, 44-42, with just over a minute left in the third quarter. Going into the fourth quarter Huston-Tilltson was still ahead 48-47 before an aforementioned back and forth final quarter that secured the victory for UVI.
UVI’s Men’s basketball suffered their fifth straight loss to start the season at the hands of Huston-Tillotson, 71-62, in a game that was extremely close throughout.
Neither team led the game by more than four points for the first 31 and a half minutes of the contest but after Jamari Williams scored five straight points for the Bucs, UVI led 54-48 with just under eight and half minutes left in the game.
Huston-Tillotson responded by going on a 14-3 run over a four and a half minute span to take a 62-57 lead with just under four minutes remaining forcing UVI to call a timeout.
While UVI got within four points after scoring a free throw with 2:46 left in the game they did not get closer than that down the stretch.
Two straight dunks from Huston-Tilltson’s Shannon Robinson put the visitors up by nine points and the game out of reach of UVI with just over a minute to go.
Jamal Norris scored a team high 20 points for the Bucs while Huston-Tilltson’s Robinson led the game with 21 points.
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