ELLISVILLE, Miss. — The Pearl River women led early Monday but No. 11 Jones College rallied late in the first quarter and never relinquished the lead, topping PRCC 75-54 at A.B. Howard Gymnasium.
"It was a lot closer than the score showed," Pearl River coach Scotty Fletcher said. "There are no moral victories here by any means, however I thought we showed a lot of growth. The girls came over here and battled and played their tails off and that's all we can ask."
The two teams traded shots early with Pearl River (7-4 overall, 1-2 MACJC South) taking a 9-7 lead over JC (9-2, 3-0) courtesy of an athletic jumper from Alanna Smith (Picayune).
Jakia Harper (Jackson; Provine) later knocked down a long 3-pointer to push the Wildcats back ahead 12-11.
Following a JC make Mychala Linzy (Clinton) hit a lengthy 3 of her own to give Pearl River back the lead 15-13 with 1:15 remaining.
Linzy's triple proved to be the final time the Wildcats led in the contest. Although PRCC stayed within striking distance into the fourth quarter it was unable to overtake the Bobcats.
"I thought if we could have held them to 60 points in their home that we would really have given our girls a chance to win," Fletcher said. "We only gave up 30 in the first half, but, man, that third quarter they had 23 and when you go on the road you can't give up that many points."
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
Smith was one off of her career high on Monday, scoring a team-high 17 points. Linzy got back into the leaders column, scoring 11. Shania Wright (Clinton) made a difference on both ends of the court, finishing with nine points and nine rebounds.
"I thought she was phenomenal," Fletcher said of his sophomore forward.
PRCC held JC under its scoring average of 82 points.
WILDCATS OF THE WEEK
Smith was named one of the Forrest General Wildcats of the Week. The Picayune native scored 27 points as PRCC swept the week's competition, defeating Delgado 62-42 and East Central 54-45.
NEXT UP
The Wildcats are back at it on Thursday when they host Hinds. Opening tip is set for 5:30 p.m.
HOW TO TUNE IN
All home events are broadcast on PRCCAthletics.com and PRCCMedia.com. Anyone who has an Amazon Fire or Roku device can stream PRCC broadcasts by downloading the "Pearl River CC" Channel from the app store.
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