UNC Greensboro 74, UNC Wilmington 46
GREENSBORO, NC ? Jasmine Byrd scored a career-high 27 points to lead UNC Greensboro to a 74-46 season opening victory over UNC Wilmington in women’s basketball action on Sunday afternoon in Fleming Gymnasium.
Byrd, the senior guard from Dumfries, VA finished 11-14 from the field, including 4-5 from beyond the arc. She also added 2 steals and three assists. Junior guard Kristen Boone tallied a double-double and recorded a career-high 11 steals and 10 points for the Spartans. The Upper Marlboro, ND native also collected three assists in the victory. Freshman Ashley Ling and senior Irene Otamiri contributed eight points a piece for the Spartans.
Lori Drake was the only Seahawk in double figures, finishing with 11 points and seven rebounds. Alex Stewart and Sahsha Taylor each contributed nine points. Steward and Becca Papach pulled down six rebounds for UNCW.
The Seahawks only lead came in the opening minutes of play when they led
5-4 at the 16:31 mark. However, UNCG would go on a 16-7 run to make it
20-12 at the 8:17 minute mark. The Spartans closed out the first half shooting 52.2 percent (12-23) from the field and led 38-24 going into the intermission.
After a Seahawk jumper in the opening of the second half, the Spartans rattled off the next six points to make it 44-26. UNCW never got any closer than 12 the rest of the way as UNCG shot 46.4 percent from the field in the second half and 60 percent from three-point range. The Spartans largest lead of the game was 28 points, which happened in the final 3:17 of the game when sophomore Ashley Mullins drilled a pair of free throws.
The Seahawks turned the ball over 35 times, which resulted in 27 steals and
42 points for the Spartans. UNCG’s bench tallied 22 points, while UNCW’s bench contributed 17 points for the Seahawks.
UNCG travels to Buies Creek, NC to take on Campbell on Friday. Tip off set for 7 pm.
Davidson 67, UNC Asheville 55
DAVIDSON, N.C. - Junior Danielle Hemerka (Blackwood, N.J.) helped the Davidson women's basketball team get off to a solid start to the 2006-07 season with a game-high 20 points and the Wildcats held UNC Asheville to 29 percent shooting in picking up a 67-55 win on Sunday afternoon in Belk Arena. Davidson opens the season at 1-0, while UNCA starts at 0-1.
The game was Davidson's first home season-opener since the 1993-94 campaign, while the win was its first in a home season-opener since a 64-40 win over Ferrum on Dec. 12, 1992. The Wildcats also improved to 5-10 overall in season openers since the resurrection of the program in 1992-93.
Despite shooting only 30 percent from the field in the first half, the Wildcats led the majority of the contest. They finished at a 36.1 percent click in the game, while holding UNCA to a 20-of-69 shooting performance from the field, including 5-of-21 from behind the arc. Davidson's defense held UNCA to only a 22.6 percent shooting performance in the first half.
Katie Barton gave the Bulldogs a brief 5-0 advantage in the first two minutes of play, but Davidson took over from there, starting with back-to-back threes from senior Jessica Mitchell (Wilkesboro, N.C.) and junior Katie Hamilton (Lilburn, Ga.), and used a 13-0 run over the next five minutes to jump out to a 13-5 lead with 12:55 to go in the first half.
Later, UNC Asheville cut the lead down to four, 19-15, on a layup from Ana Baker with 6:55 on the clock, but Davidson answered back with a 7-0 run pushing its lead out to double-digits for the first time at 26-15 after Hemerka hit two free throws at the 3:41 mark. The Wildcats added four more points before the half and would go into halftime up 30-18.
After UNC Asheville got to within nine to start the second period, the Wildcats opened up their biggest lead of the game at 18 points, 46-28, when sophomore Mercedes Robinson (Mansfield, Texas) laid one up and in with 11:59 to go in the game.
Davidson maintained at least a 10-point advantage the rest of the way and hit 11-of-12 free throws in the second half to secure the 67-55 season opening win.
Hemerka finished 5-of-10 from the field, including hitting two three-pointers and helped Davidson to go 18-for-21 from the charity stripe by matching her career-high with an 8-for-10 showing. The junior also hauled in a team-high eight boards in leading the Wildcats to a 49-43 edge on the boards.
Also finishing in double-figures for the Wildcats was the senior duo of Brynn Kelly (Spokane, Wash.) and Mitchell. Kelly had 11 points and six rebounds, while Mitchell was 5-of-7 from the field and 2-of-3 from behind the arc for 12 points. She also chipped in with four steals and three assists.
The Bulldogs placed three players in double-figures, led by Brittany Hendley's 14 points, nine of them coming from three-point land. Amanda Elder had a double-double, scoring 12 points to go along with her game-high 11 rebounds.
Davidson will now embark on a six-game road trip starting on Friday, Nov. 17 with a trip to East Tennessee State at 7 p.m. before heading to Athens to play nationally ranked Georgia, on Sunday, Nov. 19 at 2:30 p.m.
Georgia Southern 62, Stetson 46
STATESBORO, Ga. ? Returning trio Shawnda Atwood, Tiffany Brown and Ashley Rivens combined for 39 points, Sunday night, in a 62-46 victory over non-conference opponent Stetson.
The Lady Eagles (1-0) open up the season with a victory, the last time occurring in 2004 versus Jackson State. Stetson falls to 0-2, its second consecutive loss in the early season.
The visiting Hatters were the first to get up on the scoreboard when sophomore forward Shayna Swinson hit a jumper 1:23 into the contest. Janene Maclin added a free throw a minute later.
Stetson’s three point lead was cut to a 3-2 margin after a pair of successful free throws from freshman Carolyn Whitney. Whitney made her first collegiate appearance, starting at guard.
The Lady Eagles gained the their first lead when Whitney’s steal led to a winner off the hands of junior Shawnda Atwood, giving the Lady Eagles a 4-3 advantage.
Stetson regained the upper hand off a trey by Vlendy Roldan for a 6-4 Hatters’ lead.
But it would turn out to be Stetson’s final lead of the game as Atwood’s game-tying jumper, and Ashley Melson’s layup put the Lady Eagles in the lead for the remainder of the contest.
GSU’s scrappy defense forced 12 turnovers while holding the Hatters to 23.1 percent field goal shooting in the first half, which gave the Lady Eagles an open window to produce points. Sparked by Atwood’s tying jumper at 15:23, the Lady Eagles produced a 10-0 scoring run, leading the Hatters 16-6 with a little under eight minutes remaining in the first half. Atwood led all scorers with 16 points, in addition to pulling down seven rebounds.
Georgia Southern maintained the lead, going into the locker room with a 25-17 advantage.
With a roster lacking senior leadership, it was up to a combination of juniors, sophomores and four freshman to feed off each other’s intensity and not only sustain the halftime lead, but widen the scoring margin.
“I thought the defensive intensity was good,” said head coach Rusty Cram, in his 11th year at the helm of the Lady Eagles. “I thought it set the tone. We certainly made some mistakes, but there were some points out there where we had three or four freshman at the same time. That’s pretty incredible when you think about it. But we just try to grow them up as fast as we can. I’m well pleased with the defensive side of it. The offense certainly has some wrinkles to work out.”
In the second half, the Hatters closed the gap to eight points when Jamie Nesbit converted a steal to a fast break layup, but still trailing by a 27-19 margin.
Less than a minute later, junior Tiffany Brown stole the ball and converted a fast break into an easy bucket, putting the Eagles up over the 30-point mark with a 31-19 lead. Brown scored 12 points on the night, making two steals while pulling down five rebounds. She also dished out four assists on the evening.
With just under five minutes remaining in the contest, sophomore Ashley Rivens put the Lady Eagles over 50 points with a bucket, giving GSU a 51-31 lead. Rivens finished the game scoring 11 points on the night.
The Lady Eagles extended the lead to 22 points ? GSU’s largest lead of the night ? with 1:28 remaining when freshman J’Lisia Ogburn converted Rivens pass into a layup.
“The biggest thing that we’re overcoming right now is all of your players that you see on the court right now, they’ve been role players, they haven’t been the ?go to’ (players),” explained Cram. “They’ve got to grow up and learn how to be ?go to’ players that set the tone. So you see a combination of young kids, kids that are now having to become ?go to’ players instead of role players. It’s a combination of a lot of different things going on right now. And that’s just going to take time.”
The Lady Eagles improved their first half field goal shooting (26.5 percent) to a solid 12-of-31 second half from the field. GSU led the Hatters with a 49-41 rebounding margin, which gave the Lady Eagles several second chance opportunities in the paint.
With the first game behind them, head coach Rusty Cram and the Lady Eagles prepare to hit the road for a game at Jacksonville State. The non-conference match at Jacksonville, Ala. is slated for 7 p.m.
Tennessee 102, Chattanooga 72
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. ? The Lady Mocs set a 3-point record against Tennessee Sunday night at Thompson-Boling Arena, but couldn’t pull it out falling 102-72 in the season-opener for the No. 5-ranked Lady Vols.
Brooke Hand led the Lady Mocs (1-1) in scoring with 20 points, knocking down a career-high tying six 3-pointers. She had nearly half as the Lady Mocs hit 13 on the night, the most ever made against the Tennessee.
“It starts with Brooke,” Lady Mocs head coach Wes Moore said. “She’s phenomenal from outside the line. We ended up with several people hitting 3’s for us and that’s good news. Hopefully that will open up the inside for us.”
Hand was 7-of-14 from the floor and 6-for-13 from beyond the arc. Jenaya Wade-Fray had two, including the one that broke the record and Laura Hall, who dished out a game-high six assists, had a pair of treys as well.
The Lady Mocs were in the game early, never letting the Lady Vols get more than nine points ahead, but Tennessee (1-0) opened it up with a 17-0 run to take a 26-point lead at the 5:22 mark of the half. Tennessee led by as much as 31 in the opening stanza, carrying a 59-31 lead into the break.
In the second half, Tennessee jumped on the Lady Mocs early forcing four straight turnovers six points, spreading its lead to 34 before Hall sank a 3-pointer. Alex Anderson, in foul trouble early, was whistled for a pair in the space of 30 seconds, less than two minutes into the half to foul out.
“Alex is a competitor and a winner,” Moore said. “She was probably frustrated with the situation tonight and we had some let downs in other positions. She found herself as the one between them and the bucket and stuck her head in there getting into trouble.”
At 15:57 of the second half, Tennessee’s Candace Parker brought the house down, recording the first dunk by a women’s player at Thompson-Boling Arena. She forced a turnover in the back court and charged the bucket for the slam. It was her third career. She had two against Army in the opening round of the NCAA tournament last year.
Six Lady Vols scored in double digits led by Alexis Hornbuckle’s 19. She was 6-for-9 from the field with a pair of 3-pointers and went 5-of-7 from the charity stripe. Parker had 15 and Alberta Auguste scored 13 for UT. Shannon Bobbitt had a pair of 3-pointers, scoring 12 on the night while Dominique Redding and Sidney Spencer had 11 and 10 respectively.
The Lady Mocs outrebounded Tennessee 37-27, pulling down 16 offensive boards. Kristen Spann had a game-high eight rebounds, the most in her career. Erin Ogan, Wade-Fray and Shanara Hollinquest each had five in the game.
Alex Fuller had a team-high five for the Volunteers and Hornbuckle had four.
Tennessee outscored UTC 38-14 in the paint and had 40 points off 26 Chattanooga turnovers. Chattanooga had 14 second chance points to UT’s 11 and scored 29 off the bench.
“I’m proud of our kids,” Moore said. “We talked at halftime about not giving up. I think our kids represented Chattanooga well. We really appreciate the fans whocame here today.”
The Lady Mocs will stay on the road to take on Clemson on Thursday. The game will tip off at 7 p.m. Call 266-MOCS for ticket information.