Women's Basketball | 11/30/2017 11:37:00 PM

ELLISVILLE – In a battle of undefeated Top 10 women's teams, No. 3 Shelton State (Alabama) came out on top vs. No. 9 Jones County.
The Lady Bucs held off a fourth quarter rally and beat the Lady Bobcats 85-77 here Thursday night at A.B. Howard Gymnasium.
The highly-anticipated matchup lived up to its billing.
JCJC trailed 56-40 with just over six minutes remaining in the third quarter, but the Lady Bobcats would storm back.
Alexis Tolefree's (Conway, Arkansas) layup at the buzzer trimmed the lead to 66-59 at the buzzer to end the third quarter.
The Lady Bobcats pulled within 75-73 with 4:50 left when Zakyia Weathersby (Collins) scored inside.
After Tiyah Johnson made a free throw for Shelton State at the 3:53 mark, JCJC had a chance to tie. But as Tolefree was about to attempt a 3-pointer, the Lady Bobcats were called for a 3-second violation.
Shelton State's Cierra Johnson scored at 3:15 to make it 78-73. After a Kira Bonner (Quitman) free throw with 2:53 to play, Savannah Reier of the Lady Bucs hit a 3-pointer with 1:52 left and made two free throws with 1:20 remaining to stretch the lead to 83-74.
Tolefree then made a 3-pointer – JCJC's only 3-pointer of the game – with 22.3 seconds to play to cut the lead to 83-77, but Dana Echols made two free throws with 10.2 seconds remaining to clinch the game.
In the first quarter, the game was tied 19-19, but the Lady Bucs scored 11 straight points to take a 30-19 lead after the first quarter. The Lady Bucs led 48-36 at halftime.
Tolefree led the Lady Bobcats, 4-1, with 24 points. Chrystal Ezechukwu (Stone Mountain, Georgia) added 18 and Bonner finished with 12. JCJC was 28-of-37 from the free throw line.
JCJC's leading scorer and rebounder – Nique Cherry (Heidelberg) – picked up her second foul with 7:48 left in the first quarter and did not play the remainder of the first half. She finished the game with 8 points – scoring all of those in the third quarter.
Reier led the Lady Bucs, 9-0, with 19 points. Margaret Robinson added 16, Cierra Johnson had 15 and Ataiya Bridges finished with 11.
The Bobcats will open MACJC South Division play at 6 p.m. Monday at Copiah-Lincoln. Co-Lin is 8-0 after beating Coahoma 72-34 on Thursday.
Shelton State travels to Chattahoochee Valley Community College (Alabama) on Monday.

 
Thursday's game
Ellisville
A.B. Howard Gymnasium
WOMEN
Shelton State 85 Jones County 77
Shelton State              30 18 18 19 – 85
Jones County              19 17 23 18 – 77
SHELTON STATE (9-0) – Savannah Reier 19, Margaret Robinson 16, Cierra Johnson 15, Ataiya Bridges 11, Tiyah Johnson 9, Dana Echols 8, Ayanna Trigg 4, Kendall Johnson 2, Jordan LeNoir 1, Ashley Scott 0.
JONES COUNTY (4-1) – Alexis Tolefree 24, Chrystal Ecechukwu 18, Kira Bonner 12, Nique Cherry 8, Camron London 5, Zakyia Weathersby 4, Breonca Ducksworth 4, Maya Jones 2, K.K. Tassin 0, Mackenzie Thompson 0.