Story Courtesy UNC Greensboro sports information
Longwood 69, UNC Greensboro 66
GREENSBORO, NC ? Longwood University held on for a 69-66 victory over the UNC Greensboro women’s basketball team in the opening game of the 2005 UNCG/Marriott Thanksgiving Tournament Friday afternoon at Fleming Gym.
UNCG (0-2) junior KaLeah Latham led all scorers with a career-high 18 points and grabbed six rebounds, while freshman Gini Grimsley scored a season-high 15 points. Junior Brittany Frazier had her first double-double at UNCG with 13 points and a team-leading 11 rebounds.
Jessica Wilkerson led Longwood (2-2) with 16 points, while Ashley Mason had a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds. Amber Mason had six points and six assists.
Wilkerson knocked down two free throws with 0.7 second on the clock to secure a narrow victory for Longwood over the Spartans. Latham had brought UNCG to within one point, 67-66, on a layup with two seconds remaining after the Spartans had trailed by as many as nine points earlier in the second half.
Both teams suffered through shooting troubles in the first half as UNCG was 6-for-25 (25.0 percent) from the field, while Longwood got hot at the end of the stanza to finish with a 37.5 percent (12-for-32) shooting clip.
UNCG led 13-8 at the 8:07 mark after a pair of free throws by Latham. Longwood answered with back-to-back 3-pointers by Leigh Mascherin and Wilkerson to give the Lancers a 14-13 advantage with 6:03 to play until halftime. Grimsley would score five straight points to give UNCG a 22-17 lead, but Longwood went on a 12-2 run to take its largest lead of the half, 29-24, on another 3-pointer by Mascherin with 36 seconds left.
The Spartans cut their deficit to 29-28 on two free throws by sophomore Jasmine Dixon with sevens seconds left, but Longwood’s Courtney Dyer sank a layup at the buzzer to send the Lancers into the intermission with a 31-28 lead. UNCG kept itself in the game by shooting 84.2 percent (16-for-19) from the charity stripe.
Longwood’s leading scorer Ashley Mason was held scoreless in the first half but came out of the break with consecutive layups to give the Lancers a 35-28 lead. The duo of Grimsley and Latham would bring UNCG back as they combined for 10 straight points to tie the game at 44-44 with 11:04 to go. Senior Caroline Blair followed with a running layup to put the Spartans up 46-44 at the 9:50 mark.
Longwood would take the lead for good, 49-46, on a 3-pointer by Claire Blevins at 7:57. The visitors would extend its lead to as many as nine points, 62-51, on Mascherin’s third 3-pointer of the game.
UNCG will take on Ohio on Saturday in the consolation game of the tournament after the Bobcats fell 71-68 to the East Carolina Pirates in overtime in the second game of the day at the UNCG/Marriot Thanksgiving Tournament. Longwood will participate in the championship game at around 3 pm. against East Carolina on Saturday.
Tennessee Tech 82, Chattanooga 67
LAS VEGAS, NV - Behind the trio of Meagan Lyons, Emily Christian and Kendall Cavin and their 67 combined points, Tennessee Tech defeated in-state rival Tennessee Tech 82-67 at the Thomas and Mack Center in the first round of the Lady Rebel Shootout.
Lyons led all scorers in the contest with 25 points. Eagles' teammate Christian added 22 of her own, but also aided the Tennessee Tech effort on the night with 14 rebounds, with 12 of the 14 boards coming on the defensive glass.
Cavin contributed 20 points to the Eagles trimvirate, leaving only 15 points unaccounted for by the three players. In fact, only three more Eagle women found their way into the scorebook, with Jana Reece, who also matriculated a game-high five assists in the win, chipping in with eight points to finish as the next high scorer beyond the three for the Eagles.
As a team, the Eagles shot 56-percent from the field and hit an astounding 64-percent of their three-point attempts. The Eagles' percentage was in stark contrast to the Mocs', as Chattanooga was 2-for-14 (14-percent) beyond the arc.
Preseason All-SoCon selection Katasha Brown led the Mocs in the loss, tallying 17 points on 50-percent shooting on the night. The Mocs as a squad also hit 50-percent of their shots on the afternoon.
The Mocs will square off against the loser of the Stephen F. Austin-UNLV contest on Saturday.
Story Courtesy Elon sports information
Xavier 62, Elon 51
CINCINNATI, OH - The Xavier Musketeers used a 16-4 run midway through the second half to turn go from trailing 41-40 to owning a 56-45 advantage with 4:34 left in the game in route to a 62-51 women's basketball victory in the opening game of the National City Xavier Invitational on Friday afternoon.
Elon (2-1) led for much of the half, leading by as much as eight when Myra Donkin drained a three to put the Phoenix ahead 21-13 with 4:29 to play in the period. Over the final 4:29, Xavier (2-1) outscored Elon 14-4 to grab a 27-25 lead heading into halftime.
The two teams recorded four ties in the first six minutes of the second period before Elon grabbed a four point advantage when Robyn Shipley sank a three to put the Phoenix ahead 39-35 with 12:04 to play.
The Phoenix maintained a four point margin with 11:27 to go when Donkin put home a layup to put Elon up 41-37.
Xavier's Miranda Green hit a three with 10:59 to play to trim the lead to 41-40 before the Musketeers started their final run.
The Musketeers grabbed the lead for good at 42-41 with 9:12 left on a Tara Boothe jumper in the paint. Elon got the score within three at 46-43 on a Kitara McMoore jumper with 7:28 to go, but would get no closer. Xavier's biggest lead was 13 at both 58-45 and 62-49, the later coming with 1:57 to play.
"We put ourselves in position to control the tempo," said Elon coach Brenda Paul. "Xavier's an explosive and talented team. When they get a 10 point lead on you, it's going to be hard to cut into that. We showed great poise. We can be proud of this effort and can build on that."
Shipley led the Phoenix with 14 points, connecting on four threes. McMoore netted 13 points while Nikko King led the squad with five rebounds.
Xavier's Boothe led all scorers with 20 points. Suntana Granderson added 19 markers and Michele Miller scored 11 points for the Musketeers. Miller also grabbed a game-high nine rebounds.
Elon recorded better shooting percentages from all three areas of the box score than Xavier: 45.7-44.1 in total field goal percentage, 35.7-31.3 in three point field goal percentage and 66.7-55.6 in free throw percentage. Xavier held a 33-28 edge on the boards. The Musketeers turned 18 Elon turnovers into 23 points while Elon scored seven points off of 10 Xavier miscues.
The Phoenix will play Kent State, who fell to Valparaiso in overtime, in the consolation game at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday afternoon from the Cintas Center on the Xavier campus. Xavier and Valpo will play for the championship at 3:00 p.m.
Story Courtesy Georgia Southern sports information
Middle Tennessee 80, Georgia Southern 58
MURFREESBORO, TN - Middle Tennessee State junior Chrissy Givens scored a game-high 23 points and was one of four players in double-figures leading the Blue Raiders to an 80-58 win over the Georgia Southern women’s basketball team Friday night at the Murphy Center.
MTSU improves to 2-1 on the young season while the Lady Eagles fall to 0-2.
Sixteen of Givens’ points came after halftime as she went 5-for-8 from the floor and 2-for-3 from three-point range in the final 20 minutes.
Sophomore Tiffany Brown (Waxhaw, N.C.) led GSU with 15 points on 7-of-12 shooting while freshman Ashley Melson (Newnan, Ga.) added 13 off the bench.
An early 7-4 Middle Tennessee lead was erased single-handedly by senior Lee DuBose (Jefferson, Ga.) whose three-pointer knotted the score at 7-7 and fellow senior Nicole Newton (Dublin, Ga.) put the Lady Eagles up 9-7 on their next trip down the floor five minutes in to the game.
GSU hit a shooting slump after that, missing four straight shots over the next five minutes, and Middle Tennessee went on a 13-0 run to take a commanding 20-9 lead. Freshman LaCondra Mason keyed the rally with eight points, including two 3-pointers.
Georgia Southern snapped the scoring drought with a basket from Brown and two free throws by sophomore Shawnda Atwood (Pensacola, Fla.). After a Lakira Boyd bucket pushed the MTSU lead back up to nine, Newton made the first of two free throws to pull the Lady Eagles to within eight, 22-14, but that came in the middle of a six-minute span between field goals.
The Blue Raiders closed the half with seven straight points and led 39-21 at the break.
The 18-point halftime led increased to 20 early on before it was cut to 15 on a trey by Brown and a basket from sophomore Christa Waterman (Sugar Hill, Ga.), but a five-point run pushed the lead back up to 20. The closest Georgia Southern was able to get was 16 points.
The Lady Eagles return to action tomorrow afternoon when they face Louisville at 4 p.m. EST.