Wingate Tops Carson-Newman To Advance To Women’s Championship

HICKORY, N.C. -- The Wingate University Bulldogs defeated the Carson-Newman College Eagles 75-61 Saturday night in the semifinals of the 2008 Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Tournament at the Catawba Valley Community College Multipurpose Complex.

Wingate improves to 22-7 overall on the season and advances to the SAC Championship game Sunday afternoon to face the top-seeded Pioneers of Tusculum College at 4 p.m. The Eagles complete their season 15-14 overall.

Senior guard Kate Edwards (Laurinburg, N.C.) led the way for the Bulldogs with 21 points, hitting four-of-nine shots from beyond the arc. Freshman forward Stefani Shuey (Charlotte, N.C.) added 13 points, going six-of-seven from the field. Junior guard Anna Atkinson (Marion, N.C.), the 2008 SAC Player of the Year and SAC Scholar Athlete, had 12 points, seven assists and seven steals.

Sophomore forward/center Shari Buford (Hampton, Ga.) led the Eagles with 18 points and nine rebounds. Junior guard Ashley Tipton (Knoxville, Tenn.) added 16 points, hitting four-of-eight from three-point range. Senior forward Emily Mason (Rogersville, Ala.) racked up a double-double with 12 points and a game-high 10 rebounds for the Eagles.

The first half would be tightly contested, with neither team leading by more than three for the first 16 minutes. Wingate used a 13-1 run to turn a tie game into a 12-point advantage at the 2:03 mark, capped by a three from junior guard Brittany West (Valdese, N.C.).

The Eagles trimmed it back down to eight, getting a pair of free throws from Mason with 1:18 remaining. The Bulldogs would then score the final four points of the half to take a 33-21 lead into intermission.

The margin would hold steady over first five minutes of the second half. A lay-up from Jessy Keitt (Charlotte, N.C.) put Wingate up 11 with 14:51 to go. The Eagles scored the next four points to make it 45-38 on a lay-up from Mason at the 12:05 mark.

The Bulldogs would go on a decisive 10-0 run to turn an eight-point lead into a 58-40 lead with nine minutes remaining. Edwards drained a pair of threes in the flurry for the Bulldogs. After a Buford bucket, Edwards hit three free throws to give the Bulldogs a 19-point lead. The margin would not go below 14 the rest of the night. The lead grew to 20 on a three from Edwards at the 6:13 mark.

Wingate was 29-for-60 (48.3 percent) from the field on the night, while the Eagles were 23-for-57 (40.4 percent). Each team hit five three-point field goals. Carson-Newman held a 40-30 rebounding advantage, while the Bulldogs piled up 27 points on 25 Eagle turnovers. Wingate outscored Carson-Newman 36-28 in the paint.

QUOTES:

Wingate University head coach Barbara Nelson

"We're very excited to get to the championship. The girls were telling me that no one on this team has ever won this conference tournament. They've won the regular season conference championship, but not the tournament. So that's been their goal. They want to take this trophy home."

"Carson-Newman is a lot bigger and stronger than us, so the key for us was to get them to turn it over."

On playing Tusculum on Sunday:
"It's going to be tough. It's going to be on our recovery time. They have six more hours of rest, and they should because they're the number one seed. We've been trying to get ready and prepare for that by having a hard practice on the day after we played a game to see how our legs would hold up."

Carson-Newman head coach Dean Walsh

"I'm proud of our heart and effort. After the season we've had, it's only fitting that we have to deal with another injury. (Angela Volentine, who was injured in the second half)"

"Hats off to Wingate. Anna Atkinson proved why she is an All-American. She makes that ship run."