Valkyries Outlast King College, 60-59
SPARTANBURG, SC- The Converse College basketball team defeated the Tornados of King College on Monday night at the Tom and Tracy Hannah Gymnasium in a thriller, 60-59. The Valkyries earn their third Conference Carolinas win of the season, moving to 3-9 in the league and 3-18 overall. King drops to 4-9 in Conference Carolinas play and 4-17 overall.
The Valkyries had a solid first-half from the floor shooting 43.8 percent (14-of-32), while the Tornados struggled shooting 27.3 percent (9-of-33). Converse went into half-time up 32-21, having a strong showing of 17 points off the bench in the first 20 minutes of play.
King was not to be counted out in the second-half as they came out strong in the first five minutes with a 13-5 run, making the score 39-34 with 15:33 remaining. Converse had a few runs, but were unable to fully separate from King, who finally found their rhythm and took the lead at 46-45 off a Brittany Kinser three-pointer with 8:48 remaining. Converse dominated the next six minutes, leading 56-49 with 2:10 remaining, before allowing the Tornados to come back and draw within two points at 58-56, with 58 seconds remaining
It was a back-and-forth battle in the last minute when King’s Brooke Johnson broke away from the Valkyries defense for a fast-break layup with 11 seconds remaining, to make the score 58-58. Not deterred, Converse’s Jasmine Middlebrooks (Atlanta, GA) drove the court and dished the ball to freshman Chelesa Rivers (Frankfort, KY) who drained the go-ahead basket from the baseline. With .03 left in the game and the lead, Converse fouled Jana Gross who had the opportunity to tie the game from the charity-stripe, but only converted one free-throw and gave Converse the win.
Freshman Kayla Garrett (Indianapolis, IN) and sophomore Samira Gillcrese (Florence, SC) paced the Converse scoring effort with 11 points each, while Gillcrese also had 10 rebounds and 4 blocks. Middlebrooks led the Valkyries in assists with eight, adding three points and eight rebounds.
Kelly Jackson had 13 points and 14 rebounds to lead the Tornados. Alley Sprouse added 12 points, 7 rebounds, and 2 steals.
The Valkyries will be in action on Wednesday, Feb. 8 when they travel to Tigerville, SC to face the Crusaders of North Greenville University. The game will tip at 6pm.
