SENATOBIA, Miss. - Brittney Oswalt saved the best performance of her inaugural season as a member of the Northeast Mississippi Community College women's basketball program for last.
Oswalt recorded the first double-double of her collegiate career during the Lady Tigers' 72-61 loss at Northwest Mississippi Community College on Monday, March 29 in the opening round of the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Region 23 Tournament.
The Wheeler High School graduate accumulated 12 points plus a career-best 12 rebounds, including six offensive boards. Oswalt added four steals plus two assists to her stellar evening.
"It's exciting. I worked hard for it in practice," said Oswalt. "I'm definitely proud of our team. This one was important and we didn't want to lose. We're more like sisters and we love each other. We just kept on fighting."
Oswalt scored six of the initial nine points for Northeast. Her steal plus layup on the opposite end of the floor near the midway point of the first quarter gave the Lady Tigers a 9-4 advantage.
Nitirah Barry made it a 13-11 ball game in favor of Northeast at the 2:20 mark with a lay in that was assisted by Oswalt. But the Lady Rangers ended the period on a 9-0 run to take a 20-13 lead into the second.
Northwest (5-10) accounted for eight of the final 10 points of the first half to hold a 38-25 advantage at the intermission. The Lady Rangers expanded their lead to as large as 66-40 with 8:29 to go in the contest.
However, the Lady Tigers held Northwest scoreless for the next four-and-a-half minutes. Northeast produced 10 unanswered points in that stretch, including back-to-back buckets by Calysia Phillips, to cut its deficit to 66-50.
The Lady Tigers continued to chip away with a pair of jumpers by Cathy Burse and a three-pointer from Cherica Cheairs. Northeast outscored the Lady Rangers 21-12 in the fourth quarter, but simply ran out of time on its come-from-behind attempt.
"We had been playing pretty decent, but then we got to a point where we just didn't take care of the basketball," Lady Tigers head coach Brenda Mayes said. "We kept playing hard to the end and that's the good part."
Burse, who was one of only two sophomores on Northeast's active roster this season, joined Oswalt in double figures with a team-high 13 points. Phillips and Cheairs barely missed that mark with eight and seven points, respectively.
The Lady Tigers had five fewer turnovers and four more rebounds than Northwest. Northeast racked up 23 points off the Lady Rangers' miscues and had 16 second chance points as well.
This was the fourth postseason appearance for the Lady Tigers in the last five years. Northeast concluded the abbreviated 2021 campaign with a 1-14 overall record.