Koalas Drop Battle with Buffs

Despite a spirited performance from the Koalas, Columbia College dropped their basketball matchup against the visiting Lady Buffs from Milligan College on Saturday afternoon in Porter Gymnasium.

Milligan, ranked in the top four in the conference, started brightly and kept a 2-4 point lead for most of the half, spurred on by Kayla Kelly's 18 first half points. Contrary to the last meeting between the two teams, Columbia fought to take the lead with 4:30 remaining in the half at 32-31, and managed to maintain the lead through halftime to be up 43-41 at the break. Scoring was spread throughout the half, with Kaitlyn Smart (9), birthday girl Alison Sobotaka (8), and BriAna Johnson (8) balancing the Koalas top scorers.

After exchanging baskets back and forth for much of the second half, the score was tied at 68-68 with just under five minutes remaining, including a quick 3 point spree by Jennifer Giles and Jaymee Lynn Cruz. From then on, confident free-throwing shooting and points off of turnovers allowed Milligan to first grab, and then extend their lead, to 4 points with two minutes remaining and up to the final margin of 91-79.

Coach Chen was happy with the display despite the final score, saying "We played well but just ran out of gas a little bit and had a spurt where we didn't score at the end that really hurt us. Despite the loss, the effort was really good and where we need it to be."

Leading the Koalas in scoring were BriAna Johnson, who went 8/10 from the floor and had 16 points, Sobotaka with 12, Giles with 11, and Cruz with 10. Cruz had 4 assists, while Giles had 5, and Azia Gibson lead Columbia with 8 rebounds. For Milligan, Kelly finished with 29 points, while Chelsey Weddle had 26 points and 11 boards.

Columbia has a busy couple of weeks ahead as travel to Bryan, Union, and Virginia Intermont for their next three games. The Koalas will be at Bryan on Wednesday at 6:30 PM.