![\"Corey](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ad23c844-5df8-4585-9929-a37c35fb6107_1721861171.png\")
<\/a>JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014<\/p>\nThe Savannah Steel pushed the league-leading Jacksonville Waves to the brink but fell short late in an 81-75 loss, extending Savannah\u2019s losing streak to seven games in its inaugural UPSHOT League season.<\/p>\n
The defeat also marked Jacksonville\u2019s fifth straight win over its I-95 rival.<\/p>\n
Savannah stayed close early with disciplined team play and got a boost from Alisia Jenkins in the second quarter. Jenkins repeatedly attacked the basket and went 6 of 7 from the free-throw line after an 8-for-8 performance Friday, helping keep the Steel within striking distance at halftime.<\/p>\n
In the second half, Lasha Petree and Olivia Cochran helped steady Savannah, while Zee Spearman and Petree led a fourth-quarter rally that nearly produced an upset.<\/p>\n
Petree finished with 31 points, one shy of her season high, and Spearman tied the game at 67 with 1:38 remaining. Moments earlier, Petree found Jenkins for a layup that cut Jacksonville\u2019s lead to two.<\/p>\n
Jacksonville answered when Jasmine Walker hit a go-ahead 3-pointer to put the Waves ahead 70-67. Savannah remained in contention until the closing seconds, but Spearman missed a late 3-point attempt with 3.8 seconds left.<\/p>\n
Despite roster changes in recent weeks, the Steel showed they can compete with the league\u2019s top team.<\/p>\n
Savannah will close its road set in Jacksonville before returning home for a \u201cChristmas in July\u201d game against the Charlotte Crown at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Savannah Steel fall short against league-leading Jacksonville Waves JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 The Savannah Steel pushed the league-leading Jacksonville…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[141102,3108,141608,141610,916,116,118,117,101261,120377,74257,14208,25429,141611,68203,120374,9307,3999,141609,11273,101270,1271,3334,141607],"class_list":["post-345677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-alisia-jenkins","tag-basketball","tag-closing-second","tag-fifth-straight-win","tag-game","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jacksonville-waves","tag-lasha-petree","tag-layup","tag-lead","tag-professional","tag-roster-change","tag-savannah","tag-savannah-steel","tag-second-half","tag-steel","tag-striking-distance","tag-team","tag-upshot-league","tag-waves","tag-women","tag-zee-spearman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}