HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Brewton-Parker Women's Basketball returned to the hardwood for the first game of the new year with a tough Southern States Athletic Conference road contest at William Carey (Miss.) on Thursday night.

The Lady Barons (12-3, 4-1 SSAC) suffered their first conference loss of the season with a 67-32 defeat to the Crusaders (8-3, 2-3 SSAC) in Hattiesburg, Miss.

"Tonight was a huge disappointment for our program," Head Coach Steve Edwards said. "We expected to play well tonight, but we were not ready to play. It is on me to make sure we are ready to go, and I didn't get the job done."

"William Carey is a good team and they dominated us," Edwards mentioned. "We will put this poor performance behind us and prepare for Mobile. Mobile is an excellent team and if we plan to get a road win, we must play better basketball."

How It Happened | First Quarter

The first quarter of play began sluggishly for Brewton-Parker as it took nearly four minutes to find the basket with a score from Angel McRae at the 6:09 mark to cut a four-point Crusader lead in half.

William Carey took advantage of stone-cold shooting from the Lady Barons to close out the final 5 minutes and 55 seconds of the quarter with a 14-4 lead while shooting 5-of-9 from the field. Brewton-Parker shot for just 5.6% (1-of-18) from the field and 0-of-12 from beyond the arc, finishing the quarter with a pair of free throws from Madison Evans with 1:07 on the clock.

How It Happened | Second Quarter

Shooting woes continued for the Lady Barons in the second quarter with 0-of-16 shooting from the floor, scoring just four points from the charity stripe. Le'la Wright and Evans scored BPC's only points with two free throws each. William Carey netted 11 points while shooting 5-of-13 from the floor and just 1-of-3 from three-point distance to move to a 25-8 lead at the break.

How It Happened | Third Quarter

Both teams improved in the third quarter, but the scoreline continued to remain well within William Carey's control. After an opening trey from the Crusaders, BPC added to the tally with a pair of early free throws from Micah Bess to move the deficit to 18 points.

WCU would follow with an 8-0 run over the next two minutes to move out to a 36-10 advantage before the Lady Barons would find their first bucket since the McRae's score in the first quarter. Bess knocked down a three-pointer at the 6:40 mark to end the drought, giving BPC 13 points in the contest.

The Crusaders responded with a 14-6 run over the next five and a half minutes, keeping the Lady Barons to just 2-of-7 from the floor as Evans and A'Aliyah Clay netted the only two buckets in the final few minutes of action. WCU finished the quarter holding a 50-19 edge over BPC.

How It Happened | Fourth Quarter

The fourth quarter proved to be the best performance of the game for the Lady Barons, yet it was not nearly enough to challenge a comeback effort. Brewton-Parker managed to score one more bucket from the floor than their three-quarter total prior.

Keonya Mincey found a trey at the 7:11 mark which was the first score of the period before McRae followed with a layup just moments later. Mincey would score again at the 5:05 mark for her second of the period before following up two minutes later with a pair of successful shots from the charity stripe.

The Lady Barons closed out the game with scores from Tyra Wilson and Clay as William Carey finished the game with a 67-32 advantage by outscoring Brewton-Parker 17-13 in the final quarter of action.

Inside The Statistics

• BPC finished with a season-low shooting percentage of 14.1% (9-of-64) from the floor, 7.4% (2-of-27) from three, and 75% (12-of-16) from the foul line.
• Mincey led the way with eight points for BPC, shooting 2-of-10 from the floor and 3-of-4 from the charity stripe.
• Evans followed with seven points while snagging five boards and two steals.
• McRae led the game with 13 rebounds, producing three steals, two assists, and four points.
• WCU dominated the glass with a 56-36 rebound advantage.

Next Up

• Brewton-Parker will stay on the road and challenge Mobile (Ala.) on Saturday afternoon in the SSAC Game of the Week at 1:00 p.m. ET.