Lady Indians drop second-straight with 71-61 loss at Shelton

Lady Indians drop second-straight with 71-61 loss at Shelton
Adam Gore/LetsGoICC.com

TUSCALOOSA, AL – The Itawamba Community College Lady Indians dropped their second-straight game after a 71-61 loss to nationally-ranked Shelton State Community College on Monday despite a 30-point performance from sophomore Ty-Nita Baker (Houston).

"I feel like we were able to take away a lot of positives despite the loss," said ICC women's head basketball coach Nanci Gray. "We had a chance late in the game to get the win, but credit Shelton for taking care of business from the free throw line to come away with the win."

Baker connected on 13-of-24 from the floor and 3-of-7 from behind the arch in her second highest scoring output of the season.

"Ty did a great job finding the open spots in the defense and knocking down her shots, but you have to credit the rest of the team for setting solid screens and finding her in those open spots to be able have good looks at the basket," Gray said.

Ashley Wiley (Jackson) added 7 points while fellow sophomores Jasmine Hampton (Bruce) and Ayanna Lynn (Indianola) along with freshman Leslie Robinson (Belmont) added 6 points each in the loss.

"We got a lot of work out of our starters tonight and were still able to get a lot of quality minutes from our bench," Gray said after the game. "They did a lot of things that won't show up in the box score that helped us have a chance late in the game."

LyTia Coleman (Memphis, TN) scored 5 points off the bench in the loss.

"This was a big test to see how we have matured as a team," Gray. "We wanted to see how they would come out against a team that beat us by 23 the first time we played them and I felt like we played with a lot of determination and effort instead of just giving up before we even took the floor."

The Lady Indians committed 19 turnovers in the loss.

"I was really disappointed in how we handled the pressure early in the game, but I thought our guards did a great job in the second half and down the stretch handling their press and protecting the basketball when it counted the most," Gray said. "This was a great test to get us ready for division play."

ICC will open North Division play Thursday against rival Northeast Mississippi Community College at the Davis Event Center.

Brianna Lancaster led Shelton State with 13 while Porshia Blue and Brittany Agee added 11 each.