by Megan Murray
sports editor
The men and women’s basketball teams took to the Hanger Dome Tuesday night for midweek matchups against LeTourneau. The night held opposite fates for the Majors as the women’s team prevailed, 71-65, and the men’s team lost 77-70.
Comeback was the word of the night for the Millsaps women’s basketball team as the ladies rallied from first and second quarter deficits to record their second-straight win of the season. Junior Kim Klunk drained a three-pointer with 31 seconds left in the third to give the Majors their first lead in nearly three quarters of play.
Freshman Braxton Thomas says, “We were able to come back because we started playing together. Kelli Randle also brought a lot of energy, which helped everyone else get fired up.”
The Millsaps bench was one of the stars of the night, outscoring LeTourneau’s bench 38-15. Senior Miah Brooks tallied 14 points from the bench, while Katie Conner and Randle were right behind her with 13 and nine points respectively.
Perhaps the biggest star of the night was freshman Thomas as she led the Majors with 15 points. But, ”I actually haven’t thought a lot about leading the team with points,” Thomas says. “I was just focused on us winning.”
With the 2-0 record heading into the team’s first road games, Thomas says, “We are feeling good. We will continue to stay humble. This is only the beginning. We have a long way to go and a lot to work on.”
The winning streak came to a close over the weekend as the Majors women’s basketball team lost its first two road games against Centenary College and Austin College by final scores of 54-46 and 76-68 respectively. The Majors will look to rebound after Thanksgiving when they take on Rust College on the road Dec. 1.
The midweek game was not as successful for the Millsaps men’s basketball team; the loss dropped the team to 0-2 in the still early season. The Majors played strong in the first half as they carried a 20-13 with eight minutes left in the first. But the Yellow Jackets rallied back and took a 30-28 lead heading into halftime. Even though the Majors attempted a comeback in the second half, the Yellow Jackets held the lead for the remainder of the game.
Senior Alex Gerchow led the Majors with 13 points on the night, but ended up disappointed about the outcome of the game. “We have a lot of guys that are playing significant minutes that have had little or no collegiate experience, so the team chemistry is not where most teams’ chemistry is at this point,” Gerchow says. “The positive about this issue is that it can easily fix itself with time.”
The Majors looked to change the momentum as the team traveled to Shreveport last weekend to face Centenary College on Saturday and Austin College on Sunday. Gerchow approached the weekend games with positivity saying at the time, “The 0-2 start is an issue that we have to wash away from our memories and move onto the third game as if we are 0-0, competing for our first win. We have to go into this weekend road trip with a mindset that we are the better team and settle for nothing less than a win.”
The losing streak did, however, continue for the Majors as they lost the pair of weekend road games 88-55 and 66-63. The Majors will look to pick up its first win Tuesday as they face hometown rival Belhaven at home. Tip-off is set for 7:30 in the Hanger Dome.