This past week, the Rams were able to break even with a big win over the West Virginia Wesleyan Bobcats, followed by a tough loss to the Fairmont State Falcons.
Wednesday night’s match-up against the Bobcats started off as a close game, but by the end of the first half, the Lady Rams had racked up a 15-point lead. Shepherd experienced six lead changes within the first nine minutes of the game, but never lost the lead after that. The Rams maintained their lead through the second half, ending the game with a score of 86–66.
The Rams were led by junior center Gabby Flinchum. Flinchum scored 28 points in the game, which was enough to push her to her 1000th career point. She was also assisted by junior guard Rachel Johnson who scored 21 points and redshirt freshman Cara Mason who added an additional 13 points. Senior forward Jimyse Brown also had nine points in her final home game. The Rams connected a solid 54.7 percent of their shots from the floor plus 46.2 percent from beyond the arc and 71.4 percent from the line.
Kiki DeVane led the Bobcats with 20 points for the game, and Brittany Williams added 12 points. West Virginia Wesleyan shot 39.3 percent from the floor, 33.3 percent from three-point range, and 59.3 percent from the charity stripe.
After getting two wins in a row despite a long losing streak, head coach Toni West thought that the momentum would help them in their next contest. “The two wins for us are huge. The girls are learning to play together and deal with adversity. Saturday’s game is huge. It’s a mental game,” stated West.
Unfortunately, the change in attitude for the Rams wasn’t enough to help them defeat the Falcons on Saturday. The Rams started off the game by putting up a fight, but the Falcons held the lead for a majority of the first half, closing out the half with a score of 45–41. Although the Rams kept the game close throughout the first half, the Falcons held the lead for the entire second half and ran the score up to 103–80, leaving the Rams in the loss column for their final regular season game of the 2013-2014 season.
The Rams were led by freshman forward Liz Myers who scored her career-high of 17 points. Flinchum and Mason also contributed 15 points each. Shepherd shot 42.5 percent from the floor, 11.1 percent from three-point range, and 68 percent from the line. That three-point percentage definitely put a dent in the Rams’ hopes for victory.
Brianna Innocent led the Falcons with 27 points and 16 rebounds with assistance from Hailey Garrett who added 25 points to the score. Fairmont State connected 59.4 percent of their shots from the floor, 33.3 percent from beyond the arc, and 73.9 percent from the charity stripe.
After last week, the Rams are left with a record of 4–22. The Rams will return to action on Tuesday when they travel to compete in the Mountain East Conference tournament, in which they are the 11th seed. Shepherd will face the sixth-seeded Urbana Blue Knights, who have a record of 17–9.
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