MARYVILLE – Despite being outscored in the second half by four, the Scots earned a decisive 59-36 victory on senior day.
A plus 23-point scoring margin in the second quarter was the separating factor as the Scots outscored the Scotties 26-3 in the period. The three points allowed in that quarter were the fewest for The Scots since allowing only 2 points, also against Agnes Scott, on Jan. 7, 2022.
The lone senior for Maryville,
Emma Huskey, was the star of the show for the team, scoring 10 points on 5-6 shooting and grabbing five rebounds and assisting on three more baskets.
Ella Haney also scored 10 points and grabbed four rebounds along with three assists and two steals.
Halle Kitchen lit up the boards, bringing down 10 of them while also scoring seven on 3-4 shooting (1-1 from three). She also had four steals in the effort.
"We had a good week of sharing the basketball and being efficient offensively in terms of getting our shots off of assists and being incredibly unselfish," coach
Darrin Travillian said
, "And defensively, obviously, we had a good day today. We turned them over a bunch and we out rebounded them by a significant number."
The Scots forced the Scotties into giving up 32 turnovers, the most forced by Maryville since the 2021 match up against Agnes Scott when the team forced 34. The 18 steals by MC are also a season high, and the most since last season's game with the Scotties that saw the Scots steal 22. Maryville capitalized on the turnovers by scoring a whopping 32 points off turnovers. MC out rebounded the Scotties 45-31.
Travillian continued:
"We're in a good spot right now to host that first round and, you know, we control our own destiny. If we can win two games this week, we can finish third overall, which would be a good spot."
As of this writing, Maryville sits one game behind Belhaven in the CCS standings at 9-5 in conference play and 10-13 overall for fourth place after Belhaven defeated Asbury today, giving the Eagles only their second loss in conference play. Piedmont now stands atop the CCS standings at 13-2.
"I said to the team that if you think back to the start of the season when the sky was falling and we were 0-8, and then you look at the kind of basketball we have played in January and February, we've done a lot of good things.
Since being 0-8, Maryville has compiled a 10-5 overall record, and a 9-5 conference record, including going on a four-game winning streak from Jan. 25 – Feb. 4.
"We have come a long, long way, and now we've got a chance to set ourselves up for the tournament this week. We are trying to threat these last three games like a mini-tournament, saying if you can win three games then we're going to be third place and going to host and we will have earned it. And you've got to win three games to win the conference tournament, so hopefully we are able to put ourselves in position to do it."
The Scots hit the road now for the final two regular season games, first at Covenant on Tuesday, and then traveling to Belhaven on the 21
st to make up the snowed out game originally scheduled for January 11
th.
