Tuesday evening's women's basketball game against Arkansas State Mid-South will not win any style points, nor is it one that either head coach is likely to want to re-hash often in the future.
One team attempted 32 free throws—and lost. The other team turned the ball over a whopping 35 times—and won. Ugliness aside, the only stat the Archers were concerned with was the final score, which was 64-62 in their favor to improve their season record to 3-8.
"I don't think I've ever had a game like that," head coach Shelly Ethridge said. "It wasn't pretty, but I'm proud of the way we battled. We had mostly freshmen on the court all night, and to be down nine points and rally back was great to see."
The one steadying influence was sophomore center Abbey Holtkamp, who turned in one of her best statistical performances in an Archers uniform. Holtkamp registered a double-double by scoring a season-high 22 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. That production came in 23 minutes off the bench, as the Archers started sophomore Lashonda Brewer at center. But as the Archers rallied in the fourth quarter, it was Holtkamp who shouldered the load in the post.
"Against the press, she was really the most steady player we had on the court," Ethridge said.
Behind Holtkamp's steady leadership, the Archers outscored Arkansas Mid-South by a 20-13 margin in the fourth quarter to secure the win.
The win gave the Archers positive momentum entering what will be a two-week break. They return to action Dec. 30 at Kaskaskia Community College.
With 1.2 seconds remaining and the Archers and Mid-South tied 62-62, freshman guard Shania Thornton sank a go-ahead layup to provide the winning margin. Thornton finished Tuesday with 13 points and five rebounds.