WB2k23: Turner Wins It

Longwood 66, Ohio 65

After both teams lost season openers, Longwood (1-1) and Ohio (0-2) found themselves in a tense battle which was decided with less than 10 seconds to play. Transfer Janay Turner drove towards the side of the basket a tossed up a shot with six seconds remaining that went through the net and gave host Longwood what became the deciding advantage.

Turner, a 5-8 guard from Chicago, Illinois, competed at Norfolk State last season. She made her debut at Longwood posting 17 points off of the bench in an 82-62 loss to Delaware, Monday night. Turner got the start tonight and scored 13 points to go along with five rebounds. She also shot 37.5 percent from three canning three of her eight attempts from long range.

Ohio entered the fourth quarter with a 50-46 lead as guard Jasmine Hale was in the process of having the best game of her career. She shot 5-9, scoring 12 points with two rebounds and two steals. Hale's game came to a close when she suffered a knee injury in the third quarter. "A girl fell into my knee and it bent the opposite way," Hale said after the game, when describing her injury.

In the fourth quarter Ohio struggled to score making just four of its 12 shot attempts. Despite leading for most of the final quarter, the Longwood bench stepped up big scoring 10 of the team's final 20 points to close out the game.

Adrianna Shipp-Davis came off of the bench and shared the team lead with 13 points. Chardonnay Hartley also contributed with nine points off of the pine.

Ohio's Yaya Hill shared the team lead with Hale, posting 12 points along with team highs of five assists and three steals.

Tennessee 74, UMass 65

Another team coming off of a season opening loss, Tennessee (1-1) was able to fight through a tough effort from UMass (1-1) to take a nine-point win in its home opener.

Transfer forward Rickea Jackson returned to her high scoring ways with 24 points to go along with 11 rebounds. She rebounded from a rough night where she scored just nine points in the season opening game against Ohio State. Prior to the UMass game, Jackson averaged 16.1 points in her first 68 contests. She averaged a career high 20.3 points in 15 games last season before prematurely ending her season and entering the NCAA Transfer Portal.

After being up 34-29 at the half, Tennessee had a 20-15 advantage in the third quarter which helped lift it to the win. For visiting UMass, Sam Breen led her team with 18 points and 12 rebounds.

La Tech 59, Arkansas State 56

Junior guard Salma Bates posted 17 points, five rebounds and four assists to lead her team to a tight win over Arkansas State. Host La Tech used an 18-8 third quarter run to make the difference its second win.

Bates scored just two points in La Tech's first win and entered the game averaging 5.5 points per game in her first 79 career appearances. In the win over Arkansas State she hit half of her 10 attempts, as her team made 44.2 percent of its shots from the field. La Tech struggled from the free-throw line shooting 53.3 percent. Arkansas State made 10-of-12 free-throws but hit just 33.3 percent of its shots from the field.