BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — As the regular season schedule has made its turn towards the stretch run, the
Miles women's basketball team finds itself embroiled in a three-team race for the top spot in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference West Division. One of those teams -
Lane - made its trip to Knox-Windham Gymnasium on Saturday with a chance to create a three-way tie atop the standings with six league games remaining.
The Lady Bears started slowly but leaned on its veteran roster to outlast the Lady Dragons, 71-63. Miles maintained a one-game advantage over Tuskegee and increased its lead over Lane to two games. In a game that featured seven ties and 11 lead changes, Miles took the lead for good at the midway point in the final period, then stood tall defensively by allowing just one bucket over the final three minutes to pull away.
Miles is second in the SIAC in 3-point field goal percentage this season but has not shot it particularly well. But on Saturday, the Lady Bears were able to find the range, shooting 44 percent from beyond the arc. Senior guard
Iemyiah Harris was hot from distance early as Miles was 7-of-11 from downtown through the first three quarters. She was fouled with less than a second left before halftime in draining a 3-ball, and the ensuing free throw gave the Lady Bears a 31-30 lead at the break.
Three more bombs in the third - two by Harris, the other by
Kiyara Howard-Garza (six points) - each gave the Lady Bears the lead as Miles went into the fourth quarter with a 51-47 advantage. While Lane was not nearly as proficient from behind the 3-point line (2-of-12), it was a 3-ball from Taylor Lattimore that gave the Lady Dragons a 54-53 lead with seven minutes left. Less than two minutes later, Harris showed why she is one of the best players in the SIAC. She grabbed the rebound on a missed shot, used a behind-the-back dribble to get free from a defender, then pulled up from 26 feet to knock down her fifth 3-pointer of the game to put Miles back ahead. She finished with a season-high 24 points and was 5-of-9 on 3-point attempts.
Lane would tie the score before
Tawana Nevels (four points, six rebounds) took a dish in the paint from
Madison Lee to put Miles back in front, 58-56, with 4:50 to go. From there, the Lady Dragons’ defense started to melt as the Lady Bears got easy points at the bucket by
Feliah Greer,
Makayla Rieves and
Tederia Ashley to keep Lane at bay. Miles would finish off the victory from the free throw line, going 7-of-8 from the charity stripe to complete the victory.
Dyani Bernstein (14 points), Cailynn Knox (13 points) and Chantoryia Rivers (12 points, 15 rebounds) were the top performers for Lane. Miles had a plethora of stat stuffers, including Ashley (16 points, seven rebounds, two blocks), Greer (six points, six rebounds, five assists, four steals) and
India Brown (four points, four rebounds, four steals).
The Lady Bears are back in action on Monday evening when they host Clark Atlanta in a non-conference matchup. Tipoff is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.
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ABOUT THE SOUTHERN INTERCOLLEGIATE ATHLETIC CONFERENCE (SIAC)
The SIAC is a NCAA athletic conference consisting primarily of historically black colleges and universities with headquarters in downtown Atlanta, Georgia. The SIAC includes 15 member institutions (Albany State University, Allen University, Benedict College, Central State University, Clark Atlanta University, Edward Waters University, Fort Valley State University, Kentucky State University, Lane College, LeMoyne-Owen College, Miles College, Morehouse College, Savannah State University, Spring Hill College, and Tuskegee University), which are located within a contiguous seven-state footprint (Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee and Ohio). The SIAC sponsors nine men's and seven women's sports and is a proud member of the NCAA Division II. For more information, visit
www.thesiac.com.