Avant gets going late to lift Rhodes
Lynx take first-round game
Lauren Avant’s offensive game was missing Friday night, until it came time to come to Rhodes College’s rescue.
Avant scored the final seven points, including a free throw with 22 seconds to play that gave the Lynx a 59-58 win over Louisiana College in the first round of the NCAA Division 3 women’s basketball tournament at Mallory-Hyde Gym.
The Lynx (25-3), making their tournament debut, overcame a near-meltdown against the Wildcats (24-5) and advance to Saturday’s 5 p.m. secondround game. Rhodes will meets five-time NCAA champ Washington University of St. Louis (21-5), which had to rally for a 4540 win over Texas-Dallas (20-9) in the evening’s first matchup.
Avant, a former Lausanne star, shot only 7-of19 and turned the ball over six times. But she hit a basket with 3:21 left to start the comeback from a 58-52 deficit. She added two free throws at the 2:35 mark, then came up with a steal on one end of the court and a spinning 10-footer with 1:55 on the clock to tie the score.
After another steal, a Lynx basket was wiped out by a charging call on Sarah
Johnson. Rhodes stopped the Wildcats again and Avant drove the lane. She at first was also called for a charge, but the referees reversed the call. She hit the second free throw, and the Lynx outlasted two lastsecond shots before the student section stormed the court.
“It’s a little like what we had to do last week (in the Southern Athletic Association tournament final against Millsaps), and she took that game over, too,” Rhodes coach Matt Dean said. “That’s what happens when you have a special player. Game’s on the line, you give her the ball.”
The junior transfer from Tennessee finished with 17 points, eight rebounds, six assists and six steals. Rhodes, which cruised to a 34-22 halftime lead, stretched it to 49-33 with 12 minutes to play. Johnson added 13 points, Catherine Eckert 12 and eight boards and Sarah Womack nine.
Wildcats standout Natosha Gottlieb had 18 of her 22 points, and 18 of the team’s 22, in the first half for Louisiana College, and added nine rebounds. The ’Cats rode a wave of five 3-pointers, three by Kala Chenier, to a 24-3 run and a 58-52 lead on Dansha Allison’s bucket with 3 ½ minutes. Chenier finished with nine points on those three 3-pointers, and Alli- son had eight points and 11 rebounds.
In the opener, Kristen Anda had a season-high 16 points, including 10 down the stretch, to rally the five-time national champion Bears of the University Athletic Association from a 36-30 deficit. Anda added nine rebounds, and Morgan Kilgore had 12 points for the Comets (20-9), who had beaten Louisiana College for the American Southeast Conference title.