In a very competitive game Saturday afternoon, the Cottey Comets came up short in a 64-77 loss to Philander Smith College in Little Rock, AR.
The Comets started hot, building a 7-1 lead before a De'vena Smith layup cut the lead to 7-3 at the 7:30 mark of the 1st quarter. Cottey would take a 15-9 lead into the 2nd quarter, before Panther starter Dasia Turner got hot scoring 10 points in the quarter on 5-5 shooting. Turner's outburst, combined with 10 Cottey turnovers in the quarter allowed the Panthers to take a 35-29 lead into halftime. The Comets made a couple of runs in the 3rd quarter, with Olivia Pruitt hitting the first of two free throws to cut the Panther lead to 4 points at the end of the 3rd quarter. That was as close as Cottey would get, with Philander Smith outscoring Cottey 21-30 in the 4th quarter to win 64-77. Cottey's Olivia Pruitt led all scorers with 22 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists. Jaada Valley contributed another solid effort off the bench to score 12 points and 7 rebounds. Sarah Musson also finished in double digit points for the Comets as well scoring 11 points. For the Panthers, Dasia Turner scored 20 points, with Rakia Lane and Dai Brown chilling in 15 points each. The Comets out rebounded the Panthers 42-35 and outshot them with a 40%-38% advantage. However, the Panthers were able to score 40 points off 34 Comet turnovers in the contest.
Philander Smith moves to 9-3 with the win, while the Comets fall to 4-9 on the season. Cottey will be back on the court Tuesday night (Dec 7th) with a 5pm tip-off at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, KS.
Click here for the complete box score: https://cotteycomets.com/sports/wbkb/2021-22/boxscores/20211204_1c50.xml?view=teamstats
