By: Lauren Austin
The women’s basketball team lost their home opener game 70-54 to the Lees-McRae College Bobcats last Tuesday at Steve Lacy Fieldhouse.
“I had high expectations coming into tonight,” said Rich Aubrey, head coach of the Buffaloes. “I thought we would play better than we did, but there were many careless turnovers and Lees-McRae got a lead, got comfortable, and was able to pull ahead, he said.
The Buffaloes and the Bobcats were neck and neck for the first half of the game with a maximum eight-point gap in the teams’ scores. Jaimee Hill, junior, scored 10 points for Milligan and Ashlee Price, senior, scored four. However, Lees-McRae finished the half with a 32-28 lead.
The Buffaloes struggled during the second half to keep up with the Bobcats and the Bobcats’ lead began steadily increasing with less than five minutes remaining in the game. Megan Tate cleaned up for Lees-McRae with two three-point shots in the last two minutes of the game.
“Jaimee Hill had a pretty solid game and Alisha Mainer had a pretty good first half. I didn’t do a good job getting her in good spots in the second half, and that was my fault,” Aubrey said.
Jaimee Hill was Milligan’s top scorer for the night with 14 points, followed by Alisha Mainer, senior, and Johneshia Good, junior, with eight points each.
“We started out strong, but we hit a point where our confidence dropped and momentum swung in their favor,” Hill said.
The Buffaloes will compete again this Friday against St. Thomas University at 7:30 p.m. at Steve Lacy Fieldhouse.
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