The Wallace Community College-Selma Lady Patriots got down early and couldn’t come back, as they lost 80-45 at home to the Shelton State Lady Buccaneers on Wednesday.

April Harper, head women’s basketball coach of Wallace Community College-Selma (1-12), said above all, the Lady Patriots need to get focused, and she’s hoping they can turn things around when they resume play in January.

“We’ve got to get focused. We’ve got to get focused, we’ve got to guard better as a team,” Harper said. “We let them beat us down the floor, they outhustled us tonight. When we get passes inside, we’ve got to be able to finish our layups. They put a little pressure on us and we turned the ball over a lot. We’ve just got to get focused and hopefully in 2013 we’ll come back and be ready to play.”

The Lady Buccaneers (15-0) took a 46-20 lead into halftime before cruising to victory.

Brittany Agee led Shelton State with 14 points, while Brianna Lancaster had 11 points, and Katherine Goldsby had 10 points.

Kadijah Small led Wallace with 8 points, while Jonishia Jackson, Takeela Mixon, and Jameneshia Caver each had 6 points.

Harper said the Lady Patriots need to get back to basics going into 2013.

“It’s got to be the simple stuff. We’ve got to do the simple stuff. We have to protect the ball, box out and make our free throws,” Harper said. “We have to play good defense. It’s the simple things. You’ve got to do the simple things.”

The Lady Patriots will return to action on Jan. 10 on the road at Enterprise.