SCORE

Montevallo 61, Miles 52

RECORDS

Montevallo (2-3)

Miles (2-2)

LOCATION

Trustmark Arena (Montevallo, Ala.)

HOW IT HAPPENED

Montevallo overcame an early deficit against visiting Miles College and held off the Golden Bears in the second half on its way to a 61-52 victory, marking the Falcons' first home victory at Trustmark Arena this season.

Miles opened the game with a 7-0 run, capped with a layup by Javonne Brown with 8:52 left in the first period. The Falcons ended the first period with an impressive 21-7 run, capped with a pair of free throws by senior Katie Colson with one minute remaining in the period.

The Golden Bears managed to trim the deficit to 23-22 on a layup by Torborsha Holley with 5:06 remaining in the opening half before Montevallo ended the half with a 6-3 run to carry a 29-25 lead into the locker room at halftime. A layup by freshman Ashley Dunstan with 40 seconds remaining in the half pushed the Falcons' lead to four points.

Montevallo opened the second half with a 11-4 run and took its first double-digit lead in the contest on a layup by junior Jazmine Stubblefield, which gave the Falcons a 40-29 advantage with 5:18 remaining in the third period.

The Falcons stretched their lead to as many as 15 points in the second half following a layup by junior RayVon Christian, which extended the Falcons' run to 16-4 and gave Montevallo a 44-29 lead in the contest.

Miles ended the third period with a 11-2 run to trim the deficit to 46-40 heading into the final period. A pair of free throws by Holley with 4:11 remaining trimmed the Falcons' lead to 54-49.

However, Montevallo ended the game with a 7-3 run to close out the 61-52 victory.

STAT OF THE GAME

Montevallo held a 38-31 advantage on the boards against the Golden Bears. Senior Katie Colson, junior RayVon Christian and freshman Ashley Dunstan led the Falcons with six rebounds each.

BEYOND THE NUMBERS

Sophomore D'Miyah Foster scored a career-high eight points on 3-of-5 shooting from the floor and 2-of-6 shooting at the charity stripe. Foster scored seven of her career-high eight points in the first period.

Montevallo outscored the Golden Bears 34-20 in the paint, marking the second time this season Montevallo outscored its opponent in the category. The Falcons outscored North Alabama 44-24 in the paint in their first victory of the season.

The Falcons' 15-point lead midway through the third period marked the largest lead for Montevallo in a game this season.

QUOTABLE

Head Coach Cindy Hilbrich

"When we practice, both teams are pretty even. So, I was very confident in putting that group in. I thought they did a great job. They picked our intensity up. We did a great job defensively. We started hitting buckets and then we got this thing turned around."

"Ashley is a great player for us. She can shoot the three, she can post up a little bit and she can attack. She's a really good rebounder. She likes to block shots. She can definitely pad the stats every single night. It's very rare for a freshmen to be able to do that, but she just has this mentality that she's just not scared. She's just going to let it fly. She's going to play hard and if she makes a mistake, we're going to talk about it, but she's going to continue to play hard for us."

"The guards have such a great scoring mentality and we're very well rounded at the guard spot this year, so they always want to score. Which is good, but against a team like Miles that had so much open in the paint, we're trying to get them to be patient. We have really good post players that can really dominate for us, so we need to let them play some ball too. Be patient, get it inside. When you score on the inside, it opens up the perimeter and we can get easier shots. It's just about working together."

"We've had great leadership this year. They're starting to hold each other accountable a little bit better like the coaches want them to. I would say Jerrisa (Green) is the ring leader for us. She is a really big vocal leader for us."

UP NEXT

The Falcons will return to action Saturday, Dec. 5 with a non-conference contest against Auburn University-Montgomery at Trustmark Arena. Tip off is set for 1:30 p.m.