Hawks Wrangle Gators with 103-58 Win

The College of Southern Maryland women's basketball team picked up their second win of the season Friday night, crushing the Thomas Nelson Community College Gators 103-58.

Five Hawks scored in double digits. Sophomore Amaya Yancey and freshman Chenice Lewis led the way with 19 points each, with Lewis picking up her first double-double of the season with 10 assists.

Freshman Karalina Lawrence recorded her third double-double of the season with 17 points and 12 rebounds. She also had two assists, two steals, and two blocks.

Freshman Imani Holloway had 15 points off of 7-11 shooting from the floor, and freshman Makenzie Wilson provided 14 points off the bench for the Hawks.

CSM had their best shooting night of the season so far. They went 38-68 from the floor - 55.9 percent - and 15-20 from behind the 3-point line. Yancey went 5-6 and Wilson went 4-4 from beyond the arc.

CSM head coach Ardell Jackson said "ball movement and being ready to shoot the ball" was the key to the Hawks' offensive success. "Knowing your strengths, playing to your strengths, not passing up open shots. We have a lot of kids that can shoot, and tonight we got to see them shoot the ball at a high volume, which I knew they always could. For a young team, sometimes you start second guessing yourself. I keep telling them, if we play good defense and we know we can get stops and we can be disciplined on D, we can knock down shots all day long."

CSM used their full-court press to cause several Thomas Nelson turnovers, which led to easy scores in transition. The Hawks held a 58-27 lead at halftime. They outscored the Gators 31-10 in the second quarter, closing out the half on a 17-0 run.

"The effort was better, the energy was better," Jackson said. "I really felt like they had better energy as a whole from the team."

CSM's next game is at home against Prince George's Community College on Tuesday, November 26 at 5 p.m.