SOUTHAVEN, Miss. – The University of Arkansas at Monticello women’s basketball team fittingly pushed the Gulf South Conference Championship game into overtime, but fell to Delta State by a final score of 53-51, giving UAM a GSC Runner-Up finish.

 

Senior Andrea Dubose hit a three-pointer in the final moments to send the Blossoms into overtime for the second consecutive game and the eighth of the season.

 

With 1:26 left in regulation, senior Addie Lees dished a pass to Dubose on the right wing, setting up the game-tying trey to make the score 44-44. Neither team scored on consecutive possessions to send the game into an extra period.

 

In overtime, DSU’s LaMaesha McAdory nailed three three-pointers to give DSU an eight point lead with 2:12 left in the game. From that point, UAM scored six unanswered points, four coming from back-to-back lay-ups by junior Monica Perkins-Miller. In the final moments, sophomore Erika Brown missed a lay-up to give DSU its fourth straight GSC title, 15^th overall.

 

“(McAdory) won it for them,” said head coach Chris Ratcliff. “I recruited her hard and I have players who were her teammates... I knew what she was capable of.”

 

“Give all the credit to Delta State and Coach (Sandra) Rushing,” Ratcliff said. “She does a great job with that program… They lost four starters a year ago, and re-loaded and are a force again this year.”

 

McAdory led all scorers with a double-double of 19 points and 14 rebounds, while teammate Veronica Walker also reached double-digits with 10 points.

 

Perkins-Miller led UAM with 16 points and also added nine rebounds. Dubose also reached double-digits with 10 points.

 

The Lady Statesmen improve to 26-6 overall, while UAM drops to 20-8 overall.

 

Dubose, Perkins-Miller and Brown all earned spots on the 2009 GSC All-Tournament Team. The rest of the all-tournament team included Walker, McAdory and UWG’s Dominic Cranford. Delta State’s Sarita Cooper was named the tournament’s most outstanding player.

 

The Blossoms are likely to qualify for the NCAA South Regional Tournament, which will be played in Cleveland, Miss. at Delta State University. The official announcement is set to be made tonight (Sunday) at 8 p.m. at www.ncaa.com. The Blossoms entered the GSC Tournament as the No. 7 seed. The regional tournament takes the top eight seeds.