By Matt Barker, Sports Information Director

HENDERSON, Tenn. - The Freed-Hardeman Lady Lion basketball team will open their regular season schedule this afternoon as they visit Blue Mountain (Miss.) College in a 2:00 PM match-up in Blue Mountain, Miss.

SETTING THE STAGE

FHU will look to continue the momentum from their Fab Four run in the national tournament this past season; however, they will have to do it without two of their All-American top scorers from last season: Hayley Newby and Grace Alonso de Armino. The Lady Lions have brought in six new players this season to help supplement the offense; however, it may take some time to find the chemistry that the team had last season.

FHU is coming off an exhibition match-up against NCAA Division 1 Lipscomb (Tenn.) University last week. The Lady Lions battled the entire game, but came up just short in the 63-65 loss to the Bison. Taleeah Cross had an impressive first half in the match-up with 12 points, but the Lady Lions were unable to put any scoring runs together in the second half to pull away.

Blue Mountain College (0-1) is coming into Saturday's game off a 79-81 loss to Fisk University on November 2. BMC opened up the game with an early 22-12 lead after the first quarter and went into the half with a 41-36 lead. However, turnovers in the fourth quarter prevented the Toppers from pulling away completely as they suffered their first loss of the season.

Blue Mountain shot 46 percent from the field and 45 percent from behind the arc. Bryana Davis led Blue Mountain in total offense with 19 points and four rebounds. Montavia Cox also put up impressive numbers in the game with 15 points and seven rebounds while Kristen Milewski had 12 points.

LAST TIME THEY MET

The last time the Lady Lions faced Blue Mountain College was February 19, 2013, a game where FHU was able to come away with a convincng 86-46 win to finish off an undefeated TransSouth conference season (8-0) and hold onto their No. 1 ranking in the NAIA.

FHU jumped ahead quickly in the form of a 15-0 run to start the game. The Lady Lions kept it up for the remainder of the first half, leading 57-24 at the break. Although the shooting for the Lady Lions cooled down in the second half, they had already built a large enough cushion to finish out the game without issue. Natalie Shumpert led all scorers with 18 points while Bagwell added 14. Grace Alonso de Armino and Hayley Newby each had 12 points in the game.

FHU leads the all-time series between the two schools 17-0.

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