By Matthew D. Stokes
BerryVikings.com Staff Writer

ROME, Ga. – Alexa Evans tied for a game-high honors with 14 points, but Berry fell to visiting LaGrange 84-65 in a Saturday afternoon women's basketball matchup at the Cage Center.

Berry trailed by single digits for much of the game's first eight minutes, but LaGrange began to separate itself with some hot shooting. The Panthers shot 70 percent from three-point range as well as 87.5 from the free-throw line in the first half, to go ahead by as many as 21 points. A 10-3 Berry run to close out the last 2:43 trimmed the visitors' advantage to 13 at halftime.

"We started off okay," said Berry head coach Stephanie Dunn. "We just fouled way too much. We weren't disciplined on defense."

In the second half, Berry sent the visitors to the free line only two times compared to 16 times in the first half, at one point cutting its opponent's lead to 11 points. Still, LaGrange managed to outscore Berry 37-31 in the final 20 minutes.

"We weren't aggressive enough," Dunn said. "LaGrange is an aggressive team defensively and offensively. We didn't capitalize on the opportunities that we had."

Evans was joined in double figures by Chanlir Segarra and Brittany Coughlan, who scored 10 points apiece. LaGrange's offense was spearheaded by Heather Miller, who tied Berry's Evans for the game-high honors with 14 points. Madison McDonald added 13, Alex Wilson tallied 12 and Anjelica Wilcox had 10.

The Lady Vikings return to the hardwood at the Cage Center on Thursday against Shorter University at 6 p.m.

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