Morristown, TN. - The Walters State Lady Senators battled more than just their opponent Friday night in their TJCCAA/NJCAA Region VII opener.

The No. 13 Lady Senators fought through first game jitters and sloppy ball handling in the early going to grab a 73-55 victory over Motlow State to end the season for the Lady Bucks.

With the win, Walters State extended their winning streak to nine games and improved to 27-4 for the year. Motlow State ended the year with a 13-17 worksheet.

“The girls really played well overall,” Lady Senators coach Dave Kragel said. “We were a little nervous early and turned the ball over too much, but it was because they were being a little bit too unselfish.

“But I was very pleased with the effort of the entire team.”

The Lady Senators started hot behind post Nakisha Strickland, who tossed in four points in an 8-0 run to start the game, and she ended up with eight points in just seven minutes in the first half.

Walters State built to the lead to 30-15 on a basket by Tiffany Travis, and the lead stood at 36-24 at halftime.

Both teams put together small runs early in the second half, but Motlow had no answers for the bench duo of Brittany Mikels and Shawnta Shelton for the Lady Senators.

Mikels made consecutive layups and a trey, and Shelton added a 3-pointer and a short jumper to spark a 16-5 run in the middle of the half to stretch the lead to 69-44 and put the game away.

“Brittany has been a good role player for us all year, and her and Shawnta came up big tonight when we needed to get going,” Kragel said.

Walters State shot 52.5 percent (31-of-59) from the floor in the contest, including a 16-of-25 (64 percent) performance in the second half.

Strickland led the Lady Senators with 14 points while Rhon’Neisha Taylor added 10 in the win. Mikels and Dana Garrett each tallied nine points for Walters State.

Abby Jackson paced the Lady Bucks with 15 points, Lauran Hudgins added 12 and Alison Rich finished with 11 in the loss. Motlow was held to just 31.1 percent (19-of-61) shooting, and they were outrebounded by the Lady Senators, 41-23.

“We played well defensively and rebounded well again ,” Kragel said. “Those two things have been big for us all year, and we did well with both tonight.”