Brown Women's Basketball Edged by Alabama State in Overtime, 82-81

Georgia Tech Holiday Tournament at Atlanta, Georgia

ATLANTA, Georgia  -- Lauren Clarke's buzzer-beater sent the game to overtime, but it wasn't enough as Brown suffered an 82-81 loss to Alabama State on Monday at McCamish Pavilion.

 

Brown falls to 5-6 while the Hornets improve to 7-4 with the overtime victory on Monday.

 

Sophie Bikofsky (Newton, Mass.), Carly Wellington (Lake Oswego, Ore.), Lauren Clarke (Colts Neck, N.J.), Jordin Alexander (Fishers, Ind.), and Rebecca Musgrove (Plainview, N.Y.) all scored in double figures for Brown on Monday.  Wellington's 16 points were a career-high while Alexander shot 70.6 percent from the field (12-of-17) over the two games at Georgia Tech.

Musgrove added seven assists for the Bears - tying her season-high in helpers.  The freshman guard also notched seven assists against Rhode Island on December 4.

 

Clarke tossed in 17 points and grabbed a team-best seven rebounds while connecting on 4-of-7 attempts from long distance.

 

Brown jumped out to an early 9-4 lead at the first media timeout, paced by Clarke's five points and the team's three steals in the opening four minutes of play.

 

Continuing their success of creating turnovers, Alexander picked off an errant pass and scored to give the Bears their largest lead at 18-10 at the 11:27 mark. Brown finished with 11 steals overall, the fifth time they tallied double-digits in thefts this season.

 

After the Hornets battled back to grab a one-point lead, treys from KJ Veldman (Spirit Lake, Iowa) and Bikofsky gave the Bears a five-point cushion with just under four to play in the half.

 

The 15-2 run late in the half on the strength of Bikofsky's put back at the 1:25 mark gave the Bears their largest lead of the game at 12.  Alabama State closed the gap with a 6-0 run in the final minute to draw within six points at the half.

 

Alexander found senior Carly Wellington (Lake Oswego, Ore.) on a nice backdoor feed to put the Bears up by five again with under 14 minutes to play.

 

A 6-0 run, capped by Danielle Ewert's free throws gave Alabama State its first lead since the halfway through the opening half at 53-52 with just over 10 minutes to play.

 

Facing its biggest deficit of the day at five, the Bears got a crucial trey from Bikofsky to make it a two-point game with eight minutes to play.  Alexander's back-to-back layups gave Brown the lead once again just a few moments later at 59-57.

 

The Hornets battled back, taking a 73-69 into the final minute before Clarke's trey cut the deficit to one with 30 seconds left. The Bears had the ball, trailing by two as Bikofsky's three was short, but Clarke grabbed the rebound and laid it in at the buzzer to send the game to overtime.

 

The teams battled in the extra frame as Alabama State clung to an 82-81 lead with just seconds to play.  Wellington's bid from long range with the clocking running down rimmed out, the Bears grabbed the offensive rebound but weren't able to get another shot off before time expired.

 

Monday marked the first overtime loss for the Bears since falling 71-69 to Rhode Island on December 8, 2010.

 

Brown will return to the friendly confines of the Pizzitola Sports Center on Friday to battle New Hampshire at 7 p.m.

COURTESY BROWN UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS MEDIA COMMUNICATIONS