SHINNSTON – The Buckhannon-Upshur Lady Bucs were never able to find a rhythm in their first road outing of the year against Lincoln in their Big 10 Conference opener Tuesday night.
The Lady Bucs never led in a 58-47 setback.
Part of the disruption for the Lady Bucs was starting guard/forward Alyssa Abel didn’t make the trip due to an illness and leading scorer and center Harley Dean was limited to just two minutes in the first quarter after suffering an ankle injury.
The Lady Bucs did see the return of Gabby Parke but she was limited to just a couple of minutes in the first quarter after coming off of an out-of-season injury, but she did score four points while on the floor.
The Lady Bucs went down early by a 9-2 score but came back with a 6-0 run behind a jumper from Casadie Lahman and two straight underneath baskets by Parke to make it a 9-8 game with 2:16 left in the opening quarter.
Lincoln closed the opening frame on an 8-2 run for a 17-10 lead heading into the second quarter.
The Lady Bucs managed just one field goal and four points in the second quarter.
That field goal was a three-pointer from Lahman which opened the scoring in the quarter with nearly four minutes gone in the period making it a 17-13 contest.
Lincoln scored the next eight points of the game before Brooklyn Smith made a free throw for B-U ending the first-first half scoring with the Lady Bucs down by a 25-14 count.
With three minutes gone in the third quarter, B-U’s Hodge’Nay Henderson uncorked a three-pointer closing the B-U deficit down to eight, at 29-21.
Buckhannon-Upshur could never get any closer as Lincoln went on a 9-2 run for a 38-23 advantage and the Lady Bucs trailed by a 42-26 margin going into the final quarter.
B-U trailed by as many as 19, at 50-31, following an outside jumper from Lincoln’s Aliyah Elder with 4:18 remaining in the game.
Buckhannon-Upshur made the final score more respectable in the final four minutes, outscoring Lincoln in that timeframe by a 16-8 margin.
It was the first win of the season for Lincoln as they improved to 1-3 overall and 1-1 in the Big 10 Conference.
Lincoln was led by Ashlyn Riley who topped all scorers with 26 points.
Leading the B-U offense was Henderson with 16 points while Lahman added 12 and Kyndal Davis contributed 10.
The Lady Bucs dropped to 1-1 on the year and 0-1 in the conference.
They will be back in action Thursday visiting Preston for another Big 10 showdown. Tip-off will be at 7:30 p.m.
The boxscore:
Buckhannon-Upshur 10 4 12 21 – 47
Lincoln 17 8 15 18 – 58
Buckhannon-Upshur 47
Hodge’Nay Henderson 7 0-0 16; Casadie Lahman 5 1-4 12; Kyndal Davis 4 2-3 10; Gabby Parke 2 0-0 4; Harley Dean 1 0-0 2; Brooklyn Smith 0 1-2 1; Rosie Shackleford 0 1-2 1; Avi Travise 0 1-2 1. Totals 19 6-13 47.
Lincoln 58
Ashlyn Riley 11 3-5 26; Brooklyn Davisson 3 0-0 8; Alexis Williams 2 1-2 6; Aundrea Blackwell 2 2-2 6; Riley Pearlman 3 0-0 6; Aliyah Elder 1 0-0 2; Sadie Adams 1 0-0 2; Adriana Elder 1 0-0 2; Gracey Fortney 0 0-0 0; Hope Blackwell 0 0-0 0. Totals 24 6-9 58.
Three-point field goals – Buckhannon-Upshur: Henderson 2, Lahman 1. Total 2. Lincoln: Davisson 2; Riley 1; Willams 1. Totals 4.
Fouls – Buckhannon-Upshur 9: Lincoln 13.
Free throw percentage – Buckhannon-Upshur: 6-for-13 for 46.2 percent; Lincoln: 6-for-9 for 66.6 percent.