The Johnson C. Smith University women’s basketball team suffered its first loss of the season Saturday, falling to Virginia State University 66-56 inside Brayboy Gymnasium.

JCSU moves to 11-1 overall and 4-1 in the CIAA, while VSU jumps to 8-4 overall and 2-2 in the conference.

Virginia State jumped out to a 13-3 lead in the first five minutes, but the JCSU team began to pick up the pace, outscoring the Lady Trojans 12-4 over the next 11 and half minutes. The Lady Golden Bulls went into the locker room at the half ahead 26-21.

In the second half, Virginia State put together an 11-6 run to tie the game (32-32) with 14:34 on the clock. After a sixth tie (43-43) with 7:09 remaining, the Lady Trojans went on a 15-1 scoring tear. JCSU never recovered.

Virginia State outscored JCSU 27-12 in points off turnovers. The Lady Golden Bulls had their worst shooting night of the season, going 20-67 (29.0 percent). They also committed 29 turnovers compared with 22 by Virginia State.

“We got off to a slow start, committed too many turnovers, and allowed them to be more aggressive than us during certain points of the game,” head coach Vanessa Taylor said. “We knew this would be a challenging opponent, they usually are; but we’ll learn from this, work on improving, and move forward.”

Junior guard LaQwesha Gamble (Winter Haven, FL) had 11 points and 13 rebounds with three assists. Junior guard Shavonda Price (Ft. Wayne, IN) followed with 10 points and six rebounds, also five turnovers. Senior center Brittane Neely (Arlington, VA) had eight points, 12 boards and four blocks.

Johnson C. Smith returns to the home court on Monday, January 17th for another conference game with Virginia Union University. Tip-off is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.
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This report was compiled using the work of Johnson C. Smith Sports Information Director Lamont Hinson.

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