Box Score PIKEVILLE, Ky. -- Up 51-49 with 11 minutes to play, the No. 25 Lindsey Wilson College women's basketball team got focused and outscored the University of Pikeville (Ky.) 22-17 the rest of the way to tally a 73-66 win on Saturday afternoon at the East Kentucky Exposition Center.
Ashley Rainey led the Blue Raiders with 23 points and eight rebounds, while Jasmine Brimm and Tiffany Williams each added 11 points as Williams did her damage with three 3-pointers.
Brogan Conley paced Pikeville with a game-high 34 points and pulled down nine rebounds after being held to single digits earlier this season in Columbia, Ky. The Bears have lost 11 straight games and are 4-18 overall and 0-10 in Mid-South Conference play.
The Bears kept in the game behind 52.8 percent shooting from the field, compared to 44.4 percent for Lindsey Wilson. Pikeville also held a 32-27 rebounding advantage, but as the game went on fatigue set it and it turned the ball over 25 times, allowing the Blue Raiders a season-high 18 steals.
For a team that is shooting the ball 38.2 percent from the field on the season, the Bears came out on Saturday looking like a group of sharpshooters. At the break they had hit 12-of-23 shots for 52.2 percent, with nearly everything coming from inside or around the paint.
With the hot touch, Pikeville was able to make it to halftime down by just three points at 31-28. It threatened with taking a small lead at times, but 12 first-half turnovers with just five assists limited its attack.
Lindsey Wilson's (16-7, 5-5 MSC) problem was attacking the Bears' 2-3 zone, not being able to find Rainey on a consistent basis in the paint, it settled for shooting 13 3-pointers with only four makes.
Despite limited touches, Rainey still led the Blue Raiders at the break with nine points, while Conley was the main event for Pikeville, hitting 7-of-8 shots for 14 points and five rebounds in just the first half.
Pikeville made it to the free-throw line for just four shots in the half, hitting them all, while Lindsey Wilson hit 9-of-14 attempts.
The Bears continued to hang around in the second half, all the way till that mark at 11:31 when Lindsey Wilson was clinging to a 51-49 lead.
At that point the game started to break in the Blue Raiders direction as Williams sank a 3-pointer, followed by Michelle Copley finishing a fast-break layup to put them up 56-49 and they never looked back.
The free-throw advantage continued as Lindsey Wilson finished 17-of-26 from the stripe as the Bears ended the game with just eight makes from the line.
Pikeville attempted just five threes in the game, connecting on two, compared to an 8-of-21 showing by the Blue Raiders.
Lindsey Wilson is back in action at 2 p.m. CT on Saturday, Feb. 4 against sixth ranked University of the Cumberlands (Ky.) in Biggers Sports Center.