Box Score Piedmont Prevails 78-71 in Rivalry Matchup
Photos by Brennan Checkalski, Maryville College
MARYVILLE – Maryville gave a red-hot Piedmont team all it could handle before the visitors prevailed 78-71 in a contentious USA South contest Saturday afternoon.
Piedmont won its ninth in a row and improved to 15-3 overall and 9-1 in conference. Maryville was within 73-71 and in possession of the ball with just over a minute remaining, but the Scots could not forge a tie against their bitter rivals.
The Scots had rallied from a 21-point first-half deficit and trailed 43-26 at intermission.
"I loved the second half," Maryville head coach Darrin Travillian said. "I told them at halftime that we couldn't play crazy, we couldn't foul egregiously, and we had to have our players on the floor and not in foul trouble if we wanted to run anything offensively.
"We had done none of those things in the first half."
Turnovers Turn into Points
Piedmont forced Maryville into 22 turnovers, which helped the Lady Lions to a killer 33-9 edge in points-off-turnovers. Many of those came on the full-court press and resulted in a 15-0 Piedmont run in the first quarter that turned an 8-7 Maryville lead into 22-8 Piedmont over just 94 seconds.
Elsa Eckenrod's 3-pointer made it 22-11 at the end of one quarter.
Piedmont stretched the lead to 43-22 before Maryville scored the last four points of the half. Madison Williams turned in a three-point play and Courtney Carruthers added a free throw for the halftime margin.
"We went into this game knowing that three things would be key: We had to manage turnovers, win the boards and have poise," Travillian said. "The only thing we did in the first half is we were competitive on the boards (25-20 Maryville). But we never did take care of the ball.
"The second half, we showed a lot more poise once we got into our halfcourt situations. But we never did value the ball and it got us."
Maryville outscored Piedmont 25-19 in the third quarter and built a 20-11 edge in the fourth to pull within 73-71 on a pair of Hailey Cronk free throws with still 1:38 remaining. The Scots regained possession on a Piedmont miss but then turned it over.
Nakiyah Washington put back an offensive rebound and, after Carruthers missed on a layup try, Washington scored again on the fastbreak with less than 10 seconds remaining to ice it.
Five Scots in Double Figures
Carruthers tallied 18 to lead five Scots in double figures. Shelby Hix connected on a trio of 3-pointers and finished with 12 points to go with eight boards. Eckenrod, Williams and Jordan Heifner added 10 points apiece, while Cronk matched her rookie season high with 10 boards to lead all rebounders.
Livia Skinner just missed her season best with 27 points, including four 3-pointers, and led all players with five assists. She scored 24 in Piedmont's 74-62 win over the Scots back on Dec. 7.
Washington added 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting to go with four assists and three steals.
After a tough week agaisnt the division's top two teams, Maryville is 7-10 overall and 4-5 in the USA South, leaving the Scots tied for fifth in the West. The top five make the conference tournament, so the Scots need to make hay against teams competing for spots over the next couple of weeks in matchups against LaGrange (Tuesday and Feb. 5), Huntington (Feb. 6) and Brevard (Feb. 9 and Feb. 13). The regular season ends Feb. 15 at Covenant.
The road begins Tuesday at 5 p.m. in a home makeup game against LaGrange.
"There is a lot to hopefully grow from," Travillian said. "I still haven't practiced with at least 10 players since Dec. 17; I'm hopeful we will be back to 10 by Monday. Give us two weeks and see where we are. We've got to win our way into a tournament, and the teams we need to beat are coming up on our schedule.
"That's all you could hope for."
Eckenrod Recognized for 500 Rebounds
Before Saturday's game, Eckenrod was presented a game ball by coaches Travillian and Jordan Ballard for eclipsing the 500-rebound plateau in a contest against John Carroll back on Dec. 21. Eckenrod with six rebounds Saturday improved her career total to 530. She also has scored 911 career points.
