MOBILE, Ala. — Rheonda Leary scored 13 of her 23 points in the second half Thursday to rally Mobile to an 80-72 Gulf Coast Athletic Conference women's basketball victory against NAIA No. 22 Xavier University of Louisiana.
The loss, just the second in the Gold Nuggets' last 13 games, moved them into a first-place tie with Loyola, a 70-61 winner at Tougaloo. Xavier will visit Loyola at 3 p.m. Saturday. Xavier and Loyola are 10-2 in the conference, and Mobile is a half-game behind at 10-3.
Mobile (18-7) trailed 17-2 after 4 1/2 minutes but cut the deficit to 34-31 by halftime. The Lady Rams then shot 72.7 percent from the floor and made 17 of 20 free throws to outscore Xavier 49-38 in the second half.
Jarryn Cleaves scored a season-high 25 points,
Erica Turnbull 15,
Dominee Matthews 11 and
Alissa Thompson 10 for Xavier (18-7). Cleaves made seven 3-point field goals to tie Courtney Simon's school record set against Belhaven on Feb. 18, 1989.
Xavier made 11 3-pointers to break the school record of 10 against Loyola on March 5, 2004. Thompson made a career best three 3-pointers, and freshman
LaTashia Wise had the other trey.
Mobile avenged a 73-60 January loss at Xavier in which the Nuggets rallied from a 13-point first-half deficit. The Lady Rams are the only GCAC team to score 80 points against Xavier in the Nuggets' last six seasons. They've done it three times, all in Mobile — the Lady Rams won 83-73 on Jan. 17, 2002, and 85-81 on Feb. 19, 2005.
