Women's Basketball Holds Off Truett McConnell

CLEVELAND, Ga.- The women's basketball team held on for a 59-56 win on Wednesday. TWU won a road Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) game against the Truett McConnell University Lady Bears.

The Lady Bulldogs came out of the gates hot as they scored the first eight points of the game. Julia Howard recorded the six points while Leslie Hames gave the team the 8-0 lead. Tennessee Wesleyan ended the first quarter with a 14-5 lead after back-to-back three-pointers by Camryn Brown and Sloan Carpenter. 

The team opened the second quarter the same way they ended the first quarter, with back-to-back three-pointers by Brown and Carpenter extending the lead to 20-7. Aubrey Long got in on the three-point action, starting a 13-0 run with her three-pointer. Brown, Talley Lawson, and Howard all scored during the rally to give the team a 33-9 advantage and their largest lead of the game. The Lady Bulldogs went into halftime leading 35-16 after Brown's layup at the buzzer.

Hames hit back-to-back three-pointers to open the second half for TWU, moving the team's lead to 41-18. After a Lawson three-point play, the offense went cold as they did not score over the remaining 4:56 in the third quarter, making the lead for the team 46-33 at the end of the quarter. 

Carpenter opened the fourth quarter with a jumper to end the drought for the Lady Bulldogs and hit a jump shot a few moments later to give the team a 50-42 lead. With 6:18 left, Truett McConnell cut the lead to four points. Lawson moved the lead back out to seven points with a three-point basket making the score 53-46. Jordan White pushed the lead to seven points again with a layup with 2:23 remaining, moving the score to 55-48. Free throws by Carpenter, Brown, and White, and a block by Lawson on a game-tying three-point attempt helped the Lady Bulldogs hold on to the win with a final score of 59-56. 

Brown led with a career-high 14 points to go along with 11 points from Carpenter and 10 points each by Howard and Lawson. Lawson led the team with 11 rebounds to complete a double-double.

Tennessee Wesleyan (3-2, 2-1 AAC) returns to their home floor on Saturday for a conference game against rival Bryan College on Saturday at 2:00 p.m.