Basketball Wins at the Buzzer

COLUMBIA, S.C. -  An exciting last minute shot pushed the Fighting Koalas basketball team to their first conference win of the season, 63-62 over Brewton-Parker College last night.  

Trailing 35-27 at the break, Columbia College opened the second half on an 8-2 run and held tough until the game winning shot by Kiara Fefie with only 3 seconds remaining.  Senior LaPorcha Williams was critical in the second half comeback.  She finished 18 points on the night and made a critical 3 pointer to bring the Koalas within one point late in the second half.  Senior Emmie Bland, who shot 7 of 14 for 15 points, capitalized on a turnover by the Barons and made a field goal to put Columbia ahead 61-60. With under a minute to play in regulation Brewton-Parker responded with a field goal from Andriea Hoskins to push the Barons back into the lead 61-62.

The winning shot came after a time out from Coach Maria Audas to set up one last play. With 11 seconds on the clock the ball was inbounded to senior Kiara Fefie, who took it the length of the court and sealed the win with a quick jump shot.  The victory was Columbia’s first conference win since January 17th, 2007.

“I am very proud of our team’s effort and progress this season.  The past few weeks have shown that the attention to details is paying off on the court,” Coach Audas said, “Columbia College basketball is moving in the right direction.”  Last season Columbia was outscored by an average of 23 points.  This year the margin is down to 10 points and the team has reached 5 wins for only the second time since the sport was added in 2004.  In the past two weeks Columbia has lost by 4 points to Truett-McConnell, 3 points in double overtime to Southern Wesleyan, and now delivered a 63-62 conference win. 

Columbia College is now 1-3 in conference play and hopes to continue their winning streak as they head to Brenau University on January 27th. Stay tuned for updates on the live SSAC webcast of that event.