The Emory women's basketball team suffered its second straight defeat on Saturday, dropping a road contest to Birmingham Southern. The Panthers upped their record to 3-2 after posting a 65-53 decision over the Eagles who slipped to 4-3.
Despite playing without Preseason All-American Ashley Oldshue, Emory trailed by just a 44-42 margin heading into the fourth quarter. However, the final 10 minutes of action proved to be the difference as BSC outpointed the Eagles by a 21-11 margin to secure the win. After a bucket by sophomore Lindsey Tse and a pair of free throws by classmate Erin Lindahl gave the Eagles a 46-44 edge with 8:30 left in the contest, BSC held Emory scoreless for nearly six minutes while scoring 11 unanswered points to take a 55-46 advantage. A bucket by Lindahl cut the gap to seven points, but six consecutive points by the Panthers boosted their cushion to 13 points, 61-48, with 1:01 on the clock.
Junior Azzairia Jackson-Sherrod topped the Emory scoring attack with a career-high tying 18 points, sinking eight-of-14 field goal attempts and both of her free throw tries en route to her fifth double-figure scoring performance of the season. Jackson-Sherrod also led the Eagles with seven boards. Lindahl was the team's other double-figure scorer with 12 points.
After trailing by six points after the first quarter, Emory faced an eight-point deficit early in the second stanza before going on an 11-0 blitz, which saw five different players score in that stretch and that gave it a 25-22 lead. BSC regrouped and answered with a 7-0 run to reclaim the lead at 29-25, but a three-point field goal by Emory freshman Molly Weiss, her second of the half, allowed the Eagles to trail by just one point heading into halftime.
A jumper by Lindahl to open the third quarter provided the Eagles with a 30-29 lead, but later in the frame a 7-2 BSC spurt, capped by a triple by Christian McGowan, gave the hosts a 44-36 edge with 2:11 left. Emory stayed in the hunt, scoring the quarter's last six points, the first four by Jackson-Sherrod, to slice the gap to two points heading into the fourth.
BSC was successful on 43.6 percent (24-55) of its field goal attempts compared to Emory's 31.3 percent (21-67). The Panthers converted 43.8 percent (7-16) of their three-point tries while the Eagles were held to 17.6 percent (3-17).
Emory returns to action on Tuesday (Dec. 5) when it plays at Agnes Scott College.