Jackson, MS – The Millsaps Women's Basketball Team earned their fourth victory in conference play with an intense win against Centre earlier today.
 
The Majors edged the Colonels in today's contest by a score of 42-40, as Millsaps improves to 10-7 overall.  Centre drops to 4-13 overall and 2-4 in SAA play.  Junior Katie Connor went 1-2 on the final free throw attempts of the game to extend the Majors lead by two points with 18 seconds left in play.  From there, the Millsaps defense held strong to seal the game and tenth win of the season.
 
Today's back and forth game featured 10 ties and eight different lead changes.  Both teams played effective defense as the Majors and Colonels combined for 33 turnovers (19 for Millsaps, 14 for Centre).  After the first 20 minutes of play, both teams went into the locker rooms tied 19-19.
 
Centre began the third period with a quick layup to take the lead.  From there, the back and forth second half took shape, as the third period alone feature five ties and three lead changes.  Junior Kim Klunk made the final basket of the quarter on a free throw, which gave the Majors a 30-29 lead heading into the final 10 minutes of play.
 
The two teams exchanged baskets until Colonels senior Alexis Guy (who led Centre in scoring) made two free throws to give Centre a 34-33, fourth quarter lead.  Millsaps, however, answered Centre by retaking the lead on a late 7-2 run. 
 
The late fourth quarter run gave Millsaps a 40-36 lead with 50 seconds remaining in the game.  After a good free throw by Kasi Matthews, Centre cut the Majors lead to one point on a Kaitlyn McKnight layup with 23 seconds left.
 
Following the Centre layup, Katie Connor went 1-2 at the line to give Millsaps a lead of 42-40 with 18 seconds left.  The Majors defense held strong by stopping Centre twice on potential game tying and game winning shots.  The massive defensive effort in the final seconds secured the win for Millsaps and extends their record at home to 7-1 on the year.
 
In all, no team would lead by more than four points in the second half as Miah Brooks and Kala-Jewel Freeman led the Majors in scoring with nine points each.  Kim Klunk also totaled six points with six rebounds while Kasi Matthews finished with five points. 
 
In shooting totals, the Majors shot 12-32 (37.5%) from the field and 2-6 (33%) on three pointers while the Colonels finished 15-44 (34%) from the field and 0-10 on three pointers. 
 
With today's win, Millsaps now moves into third place in the SAA with a conference record of 4-2.  The Majors will continue conference play next weekend, as they start another series of games played on the road.
 
Next up for Millsaps Women's Basketball is a trip to Arkansas to face Hendrix.  Tip off from Conway against the Warriors is set for next Friday, Jan. 29th at 6:00 pm.