Naqaiyyah Teague scored 10 points and pulled down 15 rebounds to lead the Coastal Empire Lady Monarchs to a 65-50 win over the Montgomery Lady Magic in Women’s American Basketball Association action in a game played at the Shuman Recreation Center on August 24.

The win was the Lady Monarchs third in a row as they improved to 3-1 on the season.

“We played well, despite missing a couple of players,” said head coach Jesse Fleming. “We played a lot of defense, ran the floor well and executed,” he went on to add.

The Lady Monarchs got off to a slow start, missing their first five field goals, but led 10-9 after one quarter of play.

The teams went into intermission tied at 27 but the Lady Monarchs using a pressing defense to limit the visitors from Alabama to just seven points in the third quarter, to take a 46-34 lead.

According to Fleming, this has been a recurring theme. “We play well in the third and fourth quarters. We need to put both halves together.”

Early in the third quarter, the Lady Monarchs found themselves down by one but they used a 13-0 run to grab a 42-30 lead with 2:17 left in the quarter.

The crowd of about four dozen spectators saw  the Lady Magic get as close as eight with 1:17 left in the quarter but the Lady Monarchs closed the quarter with back-to back layups by Latia Fleming and Brianna Gipson to extend their advantage to 12 points.

The Lady Magic (1-3) whittled their deficit to six with 6:10 remaining in the game but then went ice close as they were held without a field goal until Tatzmin Johnson made a layup with 1:52 left.

Tiarrlel Dunson made a pair of free throws for Montgomery with 1:43 showing to get them within 58-48 but they would get no closer.

Taquandra Mike had a game-high 17 points for the Lady Monarchs while Makhayla Jackson added nine points. Daniella Gazaway led Montgomery with 13 points.

The Lady Monarchs will host the Gastonia Greyhounds at 4 p.m.  Sept.   7 at the Shuman Recreation Center.