Davidson 82, East Tennessee State 68
JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. ? Led by three players who scored in double figures, including redshirt junior Katie Hamilton's (Lilburn, Ga.) team-high 20, the Davidson women's basketball team is off to its first 2-0 start since the
1992-93 season after an 82-68 road victory over East Tennessee State on Friday, Nov. 17 at Memorial Center. The Wildcats also improved to 7-3 against the Bucs during head coach Annette Watts' six years. ETSU dropped to
0-3 on the season with the loss.
Hamilton was 5-of-9 from the field, including two three-pointers, and helped the Wildcats go 23-for-33 from the free throw line with a season-best
8-for-9 showing. Fellow junior Danielle Hemerka (Blackwood, N.J.) came up with a season-high nine rebounds to lead the Wildcats for the second straight game and give Davidson a 44-41 advantage on the boards.
Also hitting double figures for the Wildcats were seniors Brynn Kelly (Spokane, Wash.) and Tia Washington (Charlotte, N.C.) with 14 and 12 points, respectively. Kelly was a force down in the paint, blocking a career-high three shots and pulling in five rebounds, while Washington chipped in with five boards and continued her assist streak by dishing out one to give her
33 straight games where she has registered an assist.
After both teams played to an 8-8 tie at the 16:40 mark, East Tennessee State took it first lead of the game thanks to the hot-shooting of Michele DeVault. The Bucs' post player started and finished a 16-6 run with a three-pointer and Davidson found itself down by the count of 24-14 with
10:37 to go in the half. DeVault scored 10 of the Bucs' 16 points in the run and finished the half with 17 points on 6-of-8 shooting and 3-of-5 from behind the arc. She would be held to only four points though, in the second half, and finished with 21 for the game.
Davidson then turned up the defensive intensity over the next eight minutes of play, chipping away at the lead. The Wildcats held ETSU to only two points, which came from the free throw line, while working back from a 10-point deficit. Hemerka brought the 'Cats to within a point, 26-25, on two free throws with 4:06 remaining on the clock.
After ETSU broke out of its scoreless slump on a DeVault bucket, Hamilton proceeded to go on a scoring streak of her own, netting seven of the Wildcats' final nine points over the final 2:30 of the first half and Davidson went into intermission with a 34-32 lead.
Hamilton and Washington would lead the charge in the second half. Washington scored six of the Wildcats' first 12 points of the new stanza and Davidson jumped out to a 46-39 advantage with 15:44 to go in the game.
ETSU would cut the lead to three shortly there after, but Hamilton made sure Davidson would not relinquish its advantage by push the lead out to 10 points, 60-50, on a three-point play with 9:11 to go.
The junior later increased the Wildcat lead to 15 points, 70-55, by nailing a trey from the left wing with 4:10 go in the contest. Two possesses earlier she had hit one from the right wing off a pass from Washington.
Hamilton and the Wildcats then closed out the game by hitting eight of their last 10 free throws in the final two minutes to secure the road win and their 14 victory in 25 tries against ETSU.
Besides DeVault's 21, Siarre Evans scored 16 points to give the Bucs two players in double figures. ETSU was held to 34.8 percent shooting and the Wildcats forced the Bucs to cough the ball up 22 times.
Davidson next heads to nationally ranked Georgia for a matchup against the Bulldogs on Sunday, Nov. 19 at 2:30 p.m. The Bulldogs, who are off to a 2-0 start, were ranked ninth in the latest Associated Press poll.
UNC Greensboro 84, Campbell 68
BUIES CREEK, NC - UNCG scored the first eight points of the second half to complete a 12-0 run, breaking open a tight game and spoiling Campbell’s home opener, 84-68, at Carter Gym on Friday night.
Senior guard Jasmine Byrd, a native of Dumfries, VA, recorded her second consecutive 20-point game and the 10th of her career with 24 points to lead UNCG. She had 27 points in the season-opening win over UNC Wilmington last Sunday and now sits at 829 points for her career in her quest to become the 21st player in school history to record 1,000 points.
Kristen Boone and Irene Otamiri chipped in 17 and 14 points, respectively.
Otamiri, a senior from Lund, Sweden, also had eight rebounds, six assists and five steals on the night.
Campbell was led by Letitia Dickson’s 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field. Marlena Murphy chipped in a career-high 14 points and eight rebounds.
UNCG, which won for the 11th time in 12 meetings and remained perfect all-time in Campbell’s Carter Gym at 5-0, raised its record to 2-0 for the first time since the start of the 2000-01 campaign. The Spartans went on to finish that year with a 22-8 record on their way to the Southern Conference title game.
The Spartans shot 50.8 percent from the floor, including 61 percent in the first half, and had a sizeable advantage in points off turnovers for the second straight game. UNCG held a 26-14 advantage in that statistical category, taking advantage of 22 Lady Camel miscues.
It was just the sixth loss for Campbell (0-2) in a home-opener in the history of Carter Gym. The Lady Camels are 30-6 all-time in home openers at Carter, but have lost each of the last four seasons.
“We came into Campbell expecting a tough game and despite the score we got that,’ said UNCG coach Lynne Agee, who picked up her 495th win as head coach of the Spartans and the 541st of her career. “They were aggressive and played physically with us. We battled through some foul trouble.
Overall, though, I thought we played well on the road.
“In the scoring column, we got another big game from Jasmine and got a solid performance from Irene across the board. She scored on good decisions, she rebounded and she defended. I think we showed a real balanced attack tonight, which we’ve said will be the key to our season.”
The first half was a series of runs by both teams. UNCG looked like was ready to run away with it midway through the first half. The Spartans ran off nine straight points midway through the first half to open up a 26-17 lead with 9:04 to play. Boone, a junior from Upper Marlboro, MD, got the run started when she hit a pair of free throws, then stole the ball for an easy lay-up in UNCG’s half-court pressure. But following a Lady Camel time out, Campbell reeled off seven straight, capped off by Kelly Hufstedler’s jumper, to close back to within two.
Campbell’s only lead of the first half came just 1:42 into the game, 5-2, but the Spartans couldn’t quite seem to shake the Lady Camels at the outset. UNCG started to get some separation, however, just before the intermission. A 9-2 run, capped by Jasmine Dixon’s conventional three-point play, gave UNCG a 41-33 lead with a little over a minute to go in the half.
Campbell scored six in a row, but UNCG again responded with the final four points of the half, the last two coming on a steal and lay-up by Jasmine Byrd just before time expired to give the Spartans a 45-37 halftime lead.
But UNCG ran off the first eight points of the second half and stretched the lead out to as much as 18 in the early minutes of the half. Campbell cut the margin a couple of times after that, but never got it back to single-digits despite the fact that the Spartans went nearly four minutes without a field goal midway through the second half.
Xavier 79, Western Carolina 50
Cincinnati, Ohio ? The Xavier Musketeers used experience at guard and height at forward to surge past the Western Carolina Lady Catamounts, 79-50, Friday night in the opening round of the National City Xavier Invitational at the Cintas Center. WCU was forced into 23 turnovers in the contest and outscored 34-20 in the paint in the defeat.
Western Carolina will face the loser of the Loyola Marymount-Toledo game at 2:00 pm on Saturday afternoon at 2:00 pm in the tournament consolation game.
Two Lady Catamounts scored in double figures led by a 15 from sophomore guard Lauren Powell and 10 from junior Ashley Pellom. Junior Chevon Keith chipped in nine points and a team-high eight rebounds despite missing the majority of the first half with foul trouble, with senior Lynsie Lamitie scoring a career-best eight.
WCU’s leading scorer entering the game, junior Monique Dawson, was limited to three points on 1-of-9 shooting, but did swipe three steals
Western (1-2) jumped out to a 3-0 lead on a Lamitie 3-pointer, but then went cold from the field as Xavier went on a 13-0 run over the next five minutes to take a 10-point, 13-3 lead at the 14:34 mark. During the run, WCU missed six shots and committed four turnovers. The Musketeers built the lead to as many as 13 before Western rallied to slice the deficit to six with five-straight Powell points, 20-14.
Over the final five minutes of the opening half, Xavier managed to stretch its lead to 13 two additional times with the last coming at the one minute mark. But the Lady Cats scored a triple by Dawson and a jumper by Pellom inside the final second to pull to within eight, 36-28, at intermission.
Out of the break, the Musketeers stretched their advantage out to a dozen with Western countering to drop it back to eight, 42-34 at the 17:00 mark on a Powell jumper. But that was as close as the Lady Catamounts could get as the Musketeers continued to inch ahead, pushing into the 20s at the 10:32 mark and then taking their largest lead of game, 29, at the 2:34 mark.
Xavier (2-0) was led by 22 points from senior guard Michele Miller including a 2-of-3 showing from long range. Freshman forward Amber Harris scored 13, with preseason All-Atlantic 10 guard Suntana Granderson scoring 10.
The Musketeers shot 42-percent from the field, including a 47-percent in the second half, while the Lady Catamounts were held under 30-percent at 28.3 for the game.
Western Carolina returns to action at 2:00 pm on Saturday afternoon in tournament play to face the loser of the Toledo ? Loyola Marymount game in the consolation match-up. Tomorrow’s game will be joined in progress on WWCU-FM, Power 90dot5 in Cullowhee following Catamount Sports Network coverage of Catamount football.
#2 North Carolina 90, Elon 36
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Ivory Latta scored a game-high 21 points and Erlana Larkins scored seven markers, grabbed nine rebounds and swiped seven steals to lead the #2 North Carolina Tar Heels past the Elon Phoenix by a 90-36 margin in women's basketball action from Carmichael Auditorium on Friday night.
Rashanda McCants got UNC (3-0) on the board first just seven seconds into the contest. Elon (1-1) would even the score at two on a Tiffany Davis jumper. Following two-point buckets for each squad the score was tied at four with 18:13 to play in the first half. From there, the Tar Heels went on a 24-4 run over the next 9:03 to grab a 28-8 lead.
The UNC margin grew to 32 twice in the first stanza, including at the break when the Tar Heels led 52-20. The 20 points were the most that the Tar Heels had allowed in the first half of play this season.
Elon was unable to fair much better in half number two and never closed the gap to less than 30 points.
Rachel Hester led the Phoenix with 11 points, including three three-point buckets in the second half. Amber Wall grabbed a team-best seven rebounds for Elon while Davis had four assists and two steals.
Latta added five assists and three steals for UNC. McCants ended the evening with 16 points and five rebounds while Jessica Breland added eight points and nine caroms.
Using their size and strength to their advantage, North Carolina dominated the boards, hauling in 52 total rebounds to just 25 for Elon.
The 36 points scored by the Phoenix was the most allowed by the Tar Heels this year. UNC entered the tilt allowing an average of 33.5 points in their two previous victories.
Elon will return home to take on Montreat at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday afternoon.