UMO guards continue to experience growing pains

By Cam Ellis
Published in Sports on January 10, 2015 11:52 PM

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cellis@newsargus.com

MOUNT OLIVE -- Tommarah Harris came off the bench to score a team-leading 16 points, but the effort wasn't enough as the University of Mount Olive lost to Pfeiffer University 68-59 in a Conference Carolinas women's basketball game Saturday afternoon.

Ty Wallace and Arieal Johnson had 11 points apiece. Anamaria Zjacic added 10 in the loss. The youth of the Trojans' backcourt once again was an issue for UMO -- 19 turnovers compared to just 13 assists.

After the game, UMO head coach Wendy Lee talked about how the struggles continue for her young guards.

"We talk about it on a daily basis," she said. "We're extremely young in the guard spots and growth is usually a gradual thing. It doesn't happen over night. We'll have to deal with some of the same issues that we've been dealing with until we can get better at them.

"You don't just get better at them in a couple days."

Lee also mentioned that the schedule they've had to play hasn't given UMO the proper amount of time to work on fundamentals in practice.

Australia native Meg Pritchard led the way for Pfeiffer. The sophomore had 23 points on 9 of 14 shooting, as well as seven rebounds and four steals. Carlisha Holivay added 16 points and Jordan Bishop had 12 for the Falcons, who picked up a crucial conference road victory.

The Trojan women suffered their fifth loss in their last six games.

"I hope we can keep our focus and not lose total confidence," Lee said. "There's still a lot of games left to be played and a lot of days left in the season. I hope we don't get disheartened and can continue to get up when we stumble."

The Trojans play Belmont Abbey at home Wednesday.