TALLADEGA – The Talladega College Lady Tornadoes snapped a four-game losing streak with an overtime victory against Shorter College on Tuesday.

The Lady Tornadoes played a strong second half and kept the game close until a three pointer by Whitney Love gave Talladega the lead, 54-52 with 3:50 remaining in regulation. Shorter’s Kelly Ellison hit a shot with 13.2 seconds remaining to tie the game at 54-54 and force an overtime period.

The Lady Hawks were outscored 10-4 in overtime with Cole scoring five of those points for the Lady Tornadoes. TC head coach Romeo Lagmay said the game was the latest in a string of close games his team has played in this season.

“We’ve been having a lot of close games, so a lot of our focus hasn’t been on skills, hasn’t been on athletic ability,” Lagmay said. “It’s all been on mental toughness, mental stability, mental focus and we were on a four-game losing streak. We had to snap that. We had to snap that to get back in that safe zone, to get back in the rankings. That’s what I preached to the ladies, mental stability and we overcame this one with overtime.”

TC led by as many as 10 points in the first half, but went on a five and a half minute scoring drought, which allowed Shorter to get back into the game. The Lady Hawks took the lead, 18-16, with 9:34 remaining until halftime. Shorter held a 31-28 advantage at intermission. The Lady Tornadoes took a little while to adjust to Shorter’s up-tempo game, which is something Lagmay said his squad is used to playing, but not defending.

“We’d seen them on film and we thought we had the upper hand on our fast break because a lot of people, they can’t really catch up with our primary breaks,” Lagmay said. “And for some reason they gave us a taste of our own medicine. So when they came out on us like that it surprised us. They out rebounded us in the first half, which doesn’t usually happen to us.”

TC’s Morgan Bennett led all scorers with 16 points.

Ebony Richardson added 12 while Cole chipped in 10. Whitney Love had eight points and Danielle Padgett put up six in the game.

Tabatha Jenkins led Shorter in scoring with 11 points. Kelly Ellison had nine while Ashley Harris, Brittney Smith and Tamara Weatherby all finished with eight.

Talladega College moves to 5-7 on the season and will travel to Jackson, Miss. to face Belhaven on Dec. 18. The 10-day break comes at a good time for the Lady Tornadoes, according to Lagmay.

“We need the break,” he said. “Tonight was really (draining). It took a lot out of us.

“They’ve got finals all this week. They need to focus on their academics and then we need to focus on more shooting, a couple of assignments we missed. I think we’ll be ok.”