BRISTOL, TN (February 23, 2007) --- The Milligan College women’s basketball team saw the 2006-2007 season come to an end Friday afternoon with a loss in the Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) tournament semifinals. The Lady Buffs, the No. 5 seed lost 54-40 to the regular season champions Bryan (Tenn.) College inside King College’s Student Activity Center. Milligan closes their season with a 19-13 record.

The Lady Buffs played without All-AAC performer Rikki Baughman (Elizabethton, Tenn.) after she suffered an ankle injury in the win over Covenant.

Milligan took a 4-2 lead after Brit White (Chuckey, Tenn.) scored 3:30 into the contest. Bryan tied the game and regained the lead behind three free throws from Kellie Thurman. Thurman was responsible for Bryan’s first seven points of the game over the opening six minutes.

A pair of free throws from freshman Keila Williams (Elizabethton, Tenn.) gave the Lady Buffs an 8-7 lead after the first eight minutes. After Courtney Swanson put Bryan back in front 9-7, the Lady Lions pushed the lead out to 24-10 with 3:30 to go in the opening half. Milligan went six minutes without a basket combined with a 12-0 Bryan run helped the Lady Lions push the lead out to 14 points. Candace Shelton (Flag Pond, Tenn.) broke the Milligan scoreless streak with two of her team-high 14 points to make the score 24-12. The Lady Buffs went into the halftime break behind 25-14.

Shelton provided early momentum for Milligan with a bucket 23 seconds into the second half. Both teams traded baskets then Bryan went on a 5-0 run to extend their lead to 32-19. Back-to-back scores from Leah Anderson (Lexington, Ky.) and Hail Sparks (Erwin, Tenn.) cut the deficit back down to nine points with 16 minutes left on the clock. However, the Lady Buffs could not come any closer then nine points down the stretch as Bryan went on to the win.

To go along with Shelton’s 14 points, fellow senior Kacie Letterman (Gray, Tenn.) scored eight points but grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds.

Bryan was led by Brittany Swanson and her 15 points while Thurman finished the game with 13 points.

Neither team shot over 30 percent from the field in the game. Milligan finished at 24.1 percent (14-for-58) while Bryan shot 28.1 percent (16-for-57) in the contest. From behind the three-point line, the Lady Buffs went 2-for-10 (20 percent) compared to Bryan’s 4-for-18 (22.2 percent) performance.