Women’s Basketball
The Piedmont women’s basketball team fell to 5-2 overall this past Sunday, Dec. 5, with a 69-54 loss against the visiting Emory University Eagles. Despite the loss, the Lions are having their best start to the season since their championship-winning 2018-19 year.
“Overall, I think we did play well, but I feel like there’s just some components that we need to work on,” said senior captain and guard Lu Woolfolk, who had 10 points in the contest. “Our help defense kind of just got us a little bit, and we just kind of need to be more consistent with putting the ball in the hole and scoring.”
Piedmont’s strong start to the season has been highlighted by plenty of newcomers making an immediate impact. Freshman forward Alex Willis and junior guard Andelin Hill have stood out on court and on the stat sheet. Willis is averaging just under 10 points per game, with six rebounds per game. Hill, who transferred from Young Harris College this year, is averaging a double-double with 13 points per game and 12 rebounds per game.
Against Emory, Hill and Willis led the Lions’ scoresheet with 15 and 11 points respectively. Hill added nine rebounds to maintain her productive start to the season.
“I feel like we’ve always had a good team at Piedmont since I’ve been a freshman, but we’ve obviously lost some seniors along the way. Having a post that can consistently score, especially being a freshman is amazing,” Woolfolk said. “Having a transfer who can score as a post and as a guard is pretty good and has definitely impacted our team a lot this year.”
The Lady Lions will play throughout the holiday break, and start their conference campaign on Jan. 5, 2024, against LaGrange College at home at 5 p.m.
—Chloe Spradlin
Men’s Basketball
The men’s basketball team fell short to Brevard College on Sunday Dec. 3, despite keeping the competition close with a score of 86-83.
The Lions had a below average shooting performance in the first half that was eventually the main cause of trailing at halftime by 9 points. However, Brevard had an electric spree of 8 three-pointers in a row before the halftime whistle.
Senior forward Joe Helenbrook, ended the night with an impressive 23 rebounds. This is a program record for the lions and was followed by Helenbrook’s also impressive 17 points.
“It felt good to get rolling,” said Helenbrook. “Having said that, we lost the game. The result is what matters at the end of the day and we couldn’t seem to keep them from scoring.”
The Lions fall to 6-2 overall on the season after the defeat. The men’s basketball team will face Bob Jones University on Dec. 5 in Cave Arena.
—Dylan Bodney
