Lady Colonels defeat Jacksonville despite slow start, fall to Belmont

Senior Brittany Coles added 13 points and three assists to the Lady Colonels’ victory over Jacksonville State last Saturday. The Lady Colonels are now 2-4 in away games.
Photo courtesy of Chris Radcliffe

BY: TYLER PHILLIPS
progress@eku.edu

The Lady Colonels went on a road trip over the past weekend, and came back with a 1-1 stat.

Eastern traveled to Jacksonville, Ala., to face Jacksonville State on Saturday, Jan. 19, where the Lady Colonels pulled out a 69-51 win. They then turned around and lost to Belmont University 49-65 Monday, Jan. 21 in Nashville, Tenn.

The Lady Colonels (10-7, 4-2 OVC) started slow against Jacksonville, but big performances from Marie Carpenter, Alex Jones and Brittany Coles helped the ladies pull out a big road win in conference play.

Carpenter, who started her first game since an injury, made five shots (including three 3-pointers), giving a 15-point lead to the Lady Colonels.

Carpenter shot 50 percent from outside the arc and added two steals to her stat line.

Brittany Coles, who has been hitting big shots for the Lady Colonels all season, added 13 points to the scoreboard, nine of those being from 3-point range.

Coles is averaging almost 37 minutes played per game (out of 40 total).  She ranks third in the OVC in that statistic.

Senior Alex Jones threw in another double-double for the Lady Colonels with 12 points and 11 rebounds.

She is now second all-time at Eastern in double-doubles with 30, and made her 100th career start for Eastern on Saturday night.

On Monday night, against Belmont, the Lady Colonels could not hold on to their lead as well as they did on Saturday.

Eastern led 29-28 at the half, but after trading baskets early in the second half and cooling off for six minutes, Belmont took advantage and went on a 13-3 run, taking the lead.

Senior Jade Barber helped lead Eastern in the game with 14 points, but the Bruins took a 15-point lead in the last four minutes, making it enough to win.

Belmont leads the OVC with one loss in the conference play.

The Lady Colonels will be at home for their next two games, having a rematch with Belmont on Jan. 26 at 4 p.m. and a game against Tennessee State on Jan. 28 at 7 p.m.