MARS HILL ADDS TOURNAMENT CROWN TO REGULAR SEASON TITLE
Denise Shelton and Lady Lions secure bid to NCAA Regional Tournament

HICKORY , NC – Under new head coach Mandy Mattox, the Mars Hill College Lady Lions completed a sweep of regular season and tournament crowns of the South Atlantic Conference, winning the Food Lion SAC Women’s Tournament Championship 85-71 over Presbyterian College Saturday at the CVCC Arena.

Presbyterian (21-8, 10-4) came out of the gates hot, hitting seven of its first eight shots in a frenzied first half. Senior Toni Leopard nailed her first four shots of the game during that run as the Blue Hose extended a seven-point lead in the opening eight minutes of play.

Mars Hill (24-4) made its run during the next eight minutes thanks to the senior tandem of Maria Hickman and tournament MVP Denise Shelton . The pair combined for 10 points in the 15-7 run made by the Lady Lions during that span. Hickman’s jumper on the right wing tied the game at 29 with under four minutes to go in the half.

The lead changed 14 times in the first half, but the top-seeded Lady Lions edged out to a four-point margin to lead at the break 40-36. The second half started just as hot for Mars Hill as the Lady Lions stormed out to a 10-0 run in the first three minutes. That second frame belonged to sophomore Tiffany Atkins as she scored 15 points and grabbed nine big rebounds to get the Lady Lions out to the double-digit lead.

Presbyterian made a run at Mars Hill past the midway point of the second half, thanks to balanced scoring and clutch long-distance shooting. The Blue Hose closed the gap to just four when sophomore Billie Haskins nailed a three-pointer at the nine-minute mark.

Mars Hill’s Atkins then scored 10 points over the next four minutes to help the Lady Lions pull away and take the championship. She and Shelton put up double-doubles for Mars Hill, with Shelton grabbing 11 rebounds and the game-high 25 points and Atkins tossing in 23 points and grabbing a game-high 12 rebounds.

“All year, I’ve gotten on her to be more aggressive with the ball,” Mattox said about Atkins, a sophomore. “I’ve told her when she has a one-on-one opportunity, she has to take it to the hole. I don’t think people can stop her. And if people are going to double-team her and Maria, then we can hit the three.

“We’ve got a lot of threats. Any one of our starters can score 20 points. When we’re playing together and playing as a team, we’re hard to stop.”

Leopard finished with 23 points for Presbyterian, while freshman Bonnie Werner chipped in 13 and senior Ja’Net Vicks added 12.

Presbyterian head coach Beth Couture said Atkins, was the difference in the game.

“I knew the difference would be defense. You could tell early on we were a step slow. Tonight, all the Mars Hill players were on the top of their game. We could not stop Atkins. We played a tough game last night. I don’t want to make excuses, but we may have been a little dead-legged. We stopped them in the paint the other two games. We did not stop them in the paint today.”

Hickman finished with 18 points while junior Holly Carringer scored 11 for the Lady Lions.

PC’s Leopard, the Lady Lions’ Atkins and Hickman, Catawba’s Danyel Locklear and Lenoir-Rhyne’s Tracy Naidas joined MVP Shelton on the all-tournament team.

Mars Hill earned the automatic berth to the NCAA Division II South Atlantic regional tournament, site and times to be announced on Sunday. Presbyterian will have to wait and see if it receives one of the three at-large bids.

 Box Score

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