The Spring Hill College women’s basketball team fell 89-82 to Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) foe Central State at the Arthur R. Outlaw Recreation Center on Saturday.

The game was closely-contested from start to finish. Central State took a 12-10 lead in the opening stretch, before Claudia Garrido hit a three and Marta Duda drew a four-point play, which resulted in a 17-16 Spring Hill lead with under four minutes to go in the first quarter.

A pair of good free throws from both teams in the closing seconds of the opening quarter left the game at a 24-24 tie. The Badgers went 50 percent (4-8) from beyond the arc in that quarter.

SHC pushed ahead to a 28-24 lead in the opening minutes of the second quarter, thanks to a free throw from Kellyn Hunter, followed by a 3-pointer from Nicole Blanch. Spring Hill led 34-33 by the next media break.

The Marauders grinded to push ahead 45-39 by the end of the first half. Spring Hill bounced back and won the third quarter (26-20), but the game was still tied 65-65 going into the final quarter of play.

Central State won the final quarter (24-17) and the game, 89-82, to move to 7-8 (4-4 SIAC) on the season. The Badgers fell to 3-9 and 3-5 in conference play after the hard-fought contest.

Garrido led the team in scoring with 21 points, while Duda led with eight rebounds. CSU’s Abbigail Peterson led the game in scoring with 22 points and her teammate, Dashanti Miller, led with 20 rebounds.

Game Details
Date: Jan. 13
Time: 2 p.m.
Venue (Location): Arthur R. Outlaw Recreation Center (Mobile, Ala.)

Results
Central State 89, Spring Hill 82
Records: Central State (7-8, 4-4 SIAC), Spring Hill (3-9, 3-5 SIAC)

They Said It
Head Coach Dan Presel
On the game
“Once again, lots of opportunities to come out with the W. I felt like we played well enough to win in a lot of facets of the game today. Defensively, for us, we’ve had to play small and when we play the bigger teams in the paint, it’s been a challenge at times. Hopefully, as we get healthy, we can kind of remedy that – some of our big guys are out. Our group, I will say this, we’re always in the game. We’re not going to quit, we’re going to continue to compete and give ourselves a chance to win at the end.”

Kellyn Hunter (Guard, Fr.)
On the game
“We played really, really hard. It wasn’t the result we wanted, but we played really hard and I’m proud of us for coming back. It wasn’t as big of a comeback as we’ve had before, but we still played really hard.”

Looking ahead
“As out coach told us, teams across America are doing [one of] two things: getting better or getting worse, and I feel that we are making progress. We may not be getting the results we want, but I believe that if we just keep our heads down and stay focused, we can still get a good push.”

Claudia Garrido (Guard, Jr.)
On her performance
“I tried to help the team today. I tried to push, get back on defense, that’s part of my job and tried to get everyone where they were supposed to be. I really feel like that we played hard and it was a really good effort, which was – how my teammate [Kellyn Hunter] and coach said – we didn’t get the result we wanted, but we worked really hard this game.

Looking ahead
“As my teammate [Hunter] said, there’s two things we can do – go up or go down. We’re making progress and we will get the result we want, we just have to keep being consistent and keep pushing each other in practices and games.”

Up Next
The Badgers will conclude their homestand with a conference game against Kentucky State on Monday.

For complete coverage of Spring Hill women’s basketball, follow the Badgers on social media @SHCwbball (X), /SHCBADGERS (Facebook), @shcwomensbball (Instagram) or visit the official home of Spring Hill athletics at shcbadgers.com