FINAL SCORE: Apprentice School 67, Salem College 66

RECORDS: Apprentice School 15-4, Salem 16-4

LOCATION: Winston-Salem, NC

ON THE COURT: In the first-ever meeting between The Apprentice School and Salem College, junior Shanae Hilliard made it all the memorable.

The Alamorgordo, NM native banked a half-court shot at the buzzer as the Apprentice School snapped a 16-game winning streak for the hosts Spirits with a 67-66 win on Saturday afternoon.  With the win, the Lady Builders extended their winning streak to five games and are now 15-4.

Apprentice School held a 38-32 lead at the half and opened that margin to 46-34 with 14:39 left on a free throw from Courtney Collins.  Salem (16-4) kept the Lady Builders within range and used an 8-2 run over a 2:35 span to tie the game 60-all on a pair of Tiffany Wildgoose free throws with 3:55 left.

Salem pushed their lead to 64-61 with 2:22 left on a 3-point play from Zykeya Henderson, but the Lady Builders had one last run in them as three Collins free throws over the 32 seconds tied the game at 64-all with 1:50 left. 

Each team had shots in the remaining 110 seconds, but a jumper from LaSashia Connelly with 2.5 seconds left gave the hosts a 66-64 lead.  Collins found Hilliard on the inbounds pass at the free throw line and she took two dribbles before launching her shot.  Fortunately for the Lady Builders, the bank in Winston-Salem had late hours on Saturday.

BEHIND THE BOXSCORE

• This wasn't Hilliard's first time for heroics this season, against St. Andrews on December 4 she hit a game-tying 3-pointer with nine seconds left to force overtime.  In the extra session she hit a 3-pointer early in the overtime for a lead that the Lady Builders never relinquished in a 78-76 win.
• Kenya Wilkerson was the leading scorer for the Lady Builders with 17 points and six steals.  The six steals marked her fifth game of the year with at least five thefts.
• April McCoy was next with 14 points and five rebounds coming off the bench.  She also added two assists and a blocked shot in 21 minutes.
• Collins followed with 10 points and six rebounds while coming in with three steals.
• Both teams were very similar in stats as the Lady Builders were 23-of-70 from the floor (32.9%), 2-for-10 from 3-point land (20%) and 19-of-28 from the foul line (67.9%).  Apprentice School had 20 turnovers and 17 steals in the game.
• Salem was 23-of-71 from the floor (32.4%), 3-of-13 from 3-point range (23.1%) and 17-of-28 from the foul line (60.7%).  The Spirits had 29 turnovers and nine steals.  Salem was paced by Satavia Taylor with 18 points and 14 rebounds.
• Both teams had 48 rebounds in the game.

NEXT UP

The Lady Builders will travel to Elizabeth City, NC for another first-time matchup as they face Mid-Atlantic Christian University in a 6pm tip on Tuesday night.