HARROGATE, Tenn. - - History was made for the women's basketball program at UVA Wise Monday as the club scored an 87-79 win over Lincoln Memorial University at Tex Turner Arena. The win was the first for the Cavaliers in Harrogate since 1978 and the first ever at Turner Arena. The win also moves Jamie Cluesman's team to 8-1 on the season marking the best start to a season in program history while extending a NCAA Division II era best winning streak to eight.
UVA Wise (8-1, 8-1 SAC) closed the game on a 12-2 scoring run to break what was a 77-77 tie with 2:36 to play.
Redshirt senior Kalee Johnson was pivotal in the game defining run as she scored six of her team-high 21 points in the stretch to put the game out of reach.
LMU (5-6, 4-6 SAC) trailed by as many as 13 points on three occasions in the fourth quarter, but Devan Carter's squad would not go away.
The Railsplitters put together a 13-0 scoring run over nearly a three-minute stretch to tie the game at 77 apiece. During the spurt, LMU forced five UVA Wise turnovers while the duo of Lauren Flowers and Mikayla Kuehne were finding buckets on the offensive end for the 'Splitters.
The free throw line would be good to the Cavs down the stretch as the visitors connected on 7-of-10 foul shots in the final 10 minutes to pull away. Johnson would make a trio of free throws while Mackenzie King netted a pair from the stripe to run the lead to 82-77 with 1:15 to play.
Nearly 45 seconds later, the knockout blow was delivered when Nia Vanzant scored off a Peyton Sams assist to make it a seven-point affair with 34 seconds to play.
UVA Wise finished the game shooting a season-best 53.1 percent from the floor. A big reason why was the play of sophomore point guard Caitlyn Ross. The Kingston, Tenn. native dished out a career-high 14 assists in the game, the number is the most by any woman in the NCAA this season, regardless of classification.
Ross added 10 points for her second consecutive double-double and third of the season.
The Cavs seemingly put the game away in the third behind the play of senior Ada Stanley. The forward scored nine of her 11 points in the period as UVA Wise ran its lead to double digits for the first time in the contest.
As was the case when the two schools played in Wise, foul trouble wreaked havoc for the 'Splitters. LMU had a trio of players foul out, including Kuehne who led all players with 23 points.
Flowers scored 16 for LMU while Proffitt (14) and Kiser (10) joined Kuehne in double figure scoring.
Five UVA Wise players reached double figure scoring. In addition to Johnson, Ross and Stanley, Vanzant tallied 16 points while adding seven rebounds and a season-high four steals while King chipped in 11 points.
Ross, Vanzant and Hanna Oliver played all 40 minutes for Cluesman's crew who will be back in action at Limestone Saturday. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. and the action can be heard live on FM 92.5 or online at wlsdradio.com
