MILWAUKEE, Wis. – Turnovers and a lack of execution down the stretch proved to be the difference in preventing the Milwaukee Area Technical College women's basketball team from being on the right side of a 72-62 final Tuesday during its Play4Kay Night.

"If we did everything we did in the second half during those first 20 minutes, this probably turns into a win, but this is not uncommon," Stormers head coach Arom Murrell said. "We've had a wealth of games this year where we play like crap in the first half and then we outscore our opponent in the second half just to come up short."

Despite taking a 16-point deficit into halftime following a tough second-quarter stretch that saw the Stormers total 14 turnovers while also being outscored 26-10, MATC managed to eventually claw itself back into the thick of things.

Down 43-27 to begin the third, the Stormers came out determined to put the first half behind them. And it showed from the jump. MATC went on an immediate 8-0 run before eventually going on to trim its halftime deficit by half entering the fourth. Both freshmen Makayla Carney and Arlinda Roundtree helped lead the third-quarter scoring charge by totaling 11 points and eight points respectively.

"I wasn't really surprised by the swing of the third quarter, at least coming out, because I ripped them at halftime," Murrell said. "They responded and did exactly what I told them to do."

Much like the start of the second half, MATC sparked another 8-0 run over the first three minutes of the fourth, which helped knot things up at 59 apiece. Shortly after, Madison countered with a 5-1 run over the next couple of minutes before a break in action came following an on-court collision between Stormers' guard Chloey Bynum and Madison's Jaida Gaskins.

Both players turned out to be okay following the timeout, but the brief pause in play completely erased all the momentum the Stormers had been building. Even though Roundtree opened the injury timeout by securing a steal that led to her getting an easy fastbreak layup to cut the Stormers' deficit to two points with 4:11 remaining, MATC wasn't able to muster up any more offense for the remainder of the game.

Collectively they went 0-for-3 with three turnovers over the final four minutes, leaving them to be outscored 8-0 to end things. As a result, the Stormers dropped to 9-19 and concluded the 2024-25 regular season 2-7 at home.

"The injury timeout obviously broke our momentum for certain," Murrell said of his team's scoring drought to end the game. "I think not only did it break the momentum, but it gave Madison an opportunity to make some adjustments, which they did…had it not been for that injury timeout with our momentum, we probably take the lead and get away with a close win."

STAT BOOK
Roundtree paced the Stormers with 20 points, six rebounds, four steals and one block. Carney added a double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds (8 offensive rebounds). Bynum finished with 12 points, four steals, two assists and a pair of rebounds. Ayers chipped in nine points, four rebounds, four assists, and two steals.

UP NEXT
MATC (9-19) will travel to Rock Valley College for a makeup game at 5 p.m. Thursday.