Weekly Women’s Basketball Notes, December 15, 2008
Women's basketball notes and game recaps for week ending December 14, 2008.
BREVARD - The Brevard wmen's basketball team's next game is Thursday, December 18th, when they travel to Gaffney, S.C. to take on Limestone College with a tip-off scheduled at 6 p.m.
CARSON-NEWMAN - The Carson-Newman Lady Eagles dropped their first two games of the season on the weekend at the Travel America Classic in Highland Heights, Ky… C-N is now 7-2 overall after tough losses to Edinboro (Pa.), 85-83, and to No. 1 Northern Kentucky, 67-51… C-N outrebounded Edinboro in Friday night's game, 47-38, including 17 offensive boards…Senior Lindsay Eggleston (Buena Vista, Colo.) led the Lady Eagles with 19 points and 11 rebounds. ..Sophomore Mandy Mendenhall added 15 points and seven boards, while junior Shari Buford kicked in 14 and seven…C-N struggled from behind the arc, finishing just 2-of-11 from deep…The Lady Scots knocked down eight three-pointers, outscoring C-N by 18 from deep, which ultimately would be the difference in the game… In Saturday's game, Ashley Kyle paced the Lady Eagles (7-2) with 18 points and was named to the All-Tournament team in the loss to NKU…Buford was also named All-Tournament after scoring eight points and pulling in a team-high six boards on Saturday... Tykira McDaniel added 12 points in the loss...Carson-Newman shot a season-low 29.1 percent (16-of-55) from the field, including an 8-of-33 effort in the second half… Northern Kentucky was 26-of-48 from the field…It took the Norse less than eight minutes to build a double-digit lead, going in front at 20-8 on a three-pointer by Rayburn... They led by as many as 15 in the half before settling into a 37-25 advantage at intermission…Carson-Newman scored the first seven points of the second half to cut the margin to five, but Northern Kentucky built its lead to 49-38 at the 10-minute mark…On the year, the Lady Eagles are outrebounding opponents by 10 boards a game (43-33)…Buford leads the way, averaging 13 points and 8.4 boards a game…Kyle is the team's leading scorer at 15 points per game…The Lady Eagles will return home on Wednesday to host North Georgia...Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Holt Fieldhouse…C-N will wrap up the 2008 portion of its schedule with an afternoon game against North Greenville on Friday at 1 p.m.
CATAWBA - The Catawba women snapped a three-game losing streak with a 73-42 win at Columbia Union on Sunday ... The Lady Indians held Columbia Union to just 29 percent shooting and helped force 44 turnovers with 22 steals ... A 14-2 run to close the first half helped break open a close game ... Catawba built it 34-19 halftime lead to 50-30 with just under nine minutes to play ... Freshman Maggie Sullivan led four double-figure scorers with 15 points ... Brooke Whitley had 11 points and six rebounds ... Pamela Muldrow and Jolysa Connor each tallied 10 points ... Muldrow added six rebounds, six assists and four steals ... Catawba shot 41 percent for the game and held its own on the boards, trailing just 47-44 in that category ... The Lady Indians host Livingstone and Saint Paul's this week before the Christmas break.
LENOIR-RHYNE - The Lenoir-Rhyne University Women's Basketball Team (7-1) matched last year's start to the season with a 77-58 victory over Converse last Friday in Spartanburg, S.C. … Junior guard Amber Holt (Charlotte, N.C.) and junior center Denise Moore (Newport News, Va.) added 18 points each while L-R, as a team, hit 22-of-29 free throw attempts (76 percent) … The Bears also limited the Valkyries to just 27 percent (18-of-66) shooting for game and pushed their winning streak to five contests with the victory … Holt is just 104 points away from becoming the 14th player in school history to score 1,000 points for her career … Lenoir-Rhyne faces St. Leo (Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.) and Florida Southern (Thursday at 7:30 p.m.) in the Florida Southern Classic in Lakeland, Fla., this week … L-R is playing each opponent for the first time in school history.
LINCOLN MEMORIAL - The Lady Railsplitters did not play last week. LMU (4-3) plays a pair of games this week. On Tuesday, the Lady Railsplitters host Lambuth at 6 p.m. On Saturday, they travel to face Indianapolis at 1 p.m.
MARS HILL - Mars Hill went 1-1 in the previous week of play. The Lions lost to Johnson C. Smith 84-76 but rebounded to defeat Montreat 77-66 to improve to 6-2 this season ... The Lions were led offensively by Brittini Young's (Ramseur, N.C.) career-high 25 points against JCSU. Shamia Terry (Greenville, S.C.) added 12 points, five rebounds, three assists and a steal. Taylor Deal (Catawba, N.C.) and Danielle Francis (Bamberg, S.C.) chipped in 11 and 10 points, respectively ... Shamia Terry (Greenville, S.C.) and Megan Clevenger (Parrottsville, Tenn.) each posted career-highs in points and rebounds in Mars Hill's victory over Montreat 77-66 ... Mars Hill jumped out to a 15-5 lead in the first half off a jumper by Jocelyn Williams (Greensboro, N.C.). The Lions grabbed their largest lead of the half at 11 points when Danielle Francis (Bamberg, S.C.) picked up a loose ball and converted a layup with 1:27 remaining to give the Lions a 37-26 edge ... Mars Hill led 37-28 at intermission off a strong offensive performance by Brittini Young (Ramseur, N.C.). Young scored 11 of her game-high 20 points in the period ... The Cavaliers came out strong at the start of the second half, outscoring the Lions 13-4 to knot the game 41-41 off a three-point basket by Whitney Mace (Marion, N.C.). The Lions would respond as Terry scored the next seven points to give Mars Hill some breathing room. Clevenger then got into the act by picking up a missed shot by Terry and converting the old-fashioned three-point play to give the Lions a 53-44 cushion with 12:27 left in the game. A Young layup and free throw at the 5:59 mark gave Mars Hill its largest lead of the game, 69-52 ... Terry and Clevenger each recorded double-doubles for the Lions. Terry finished the game with 19 points and 13 rebounds. Clevenger tallied 13 points and 11 rebounds. Young's 20 points against Montreat marks the fourth straight time this season she has scored at least 20 points in a game. Taylor Deal (Catawba, N.C.) pulled down 11 rebounds for Mars Hill ... The Lions outrebounded the Cavaliers 52-34 ... Mars Hill will travel to the Bahamas on December 18 and 19 for the Bahamas Sunshine Shootout before returning home to host Belmont Abbey on December 30. Tip-time against the Crusaders is set for 6 p.m.
NEWBERRY - The Newberry College women's basketball team defeated the Anderson Trojans, 70-63, in its only game of the week… The victory extended their winning streak to five games… Anita Bulcher (Russia, Ohio) was the leading scorer for the scarlet and gray and set a new career high of 19 points... She sank 7-of-9 shots from the field and 5-of-7 from the charity stripe... Keisha Henderson (Columbia, S.C.) also had a career day by setting her new highs in both points (11) and assists (7)... The leading rebounder for Newberry was Helen McKinney who also set a new career high with 16 rebounds... Newberry controlled the majority of the first half but could not pull away with a significant lead… The Trojans scored the first six points but the scarlet and gray went on an 8-0 run to take a lead that they would not give up until the second half… Newberry's lead grew to as much as five points but Anderson stayed in the game and only trailed 36-34 at halftime… Newberry came out of the break looking great and earned an eight point lead with 15 minutes remaining... The Trojans played hard and even took a one point lead with about eight minutes left on the clock… Newberry quickly regained the lead and finished the final eight minutes by outscoring Anderson 21-13 to earn the win… The keys to the game for the scarlet and gray were their field goal shooting and their second chance points… Although they only made one more field goal than the Trojans, they outshot their opponents 42% to 37%... They also took advantage of their offensive rebounds and scored 17 second chance points, seven more than Anderson… The win puts the scarlet and gray at 8-2 overall… The team returns home for its next game this Tuesday, December 16 against Limestone at 4 p.m.
TUSCULUM - The 11th-ranked Tusculum Pioneers (8-1) won their fifth straight game with Saturday's 92-60 win over Livingstone in TC's only action of the week… Sophomore Jasmine Gunn recorded a double-double with 19 points and 10 assists… The Pioneers record their 15th straight victory in a row at home while shooting 64 percent from the floor, including 18-for-26 (69.2 percent) in the opening half as TC led 46-25 at the intermission… Tusculum shot 58.3 percent from three-point territory, including 5-for-7 (71.4 percent) in the second half… TC's .640 field goal percentage is the fourth-best in school history in a single-game.. Junior Stephany Neptune posted 18 points, seven rebounds, four assists and three blocked shots for Tusculum, while junior Kat Spears and senior Nikki Van Dine contributed 14 and 12 points off the bench respectively… Spears was perfect from the floor going 5-for-5, while grabbing a game-high eight rebounds. Neptune recorded her 100th career shot at Tusculum (101), becoming only the third player in recorded school history to achieve that feat… The two teams tied in the rebound category, but the Lady Blue Bears hauled in 19 offensive boards… Tusculum used a 28-10 run over a 10-minute span in the first half, capped off by eight points by Neptune as TC led 44-20 with 2:02 remaining in the opening period… With Tusculum leading by 23 (50-27) in the opening moments of the second half, Livingstone made a 14-3 run in seven minutes, capped off by a basket at the 12:14 mark as TC led 53-41… The Lady Bears could not get the deficit into single digits and the Pioneers used a 22-6 spurt to put the game away… Senior Ashli Oliver has recorded 320 three-point field goals in her 97-game career, which are tops in school and South Atlantic Conference history and are 13th all-time in NCAA Division II history… Oliver is averaging 3.299 treys per game, which is currently the fifth best average in NCAA II history… Tusculum has scored 90 or more points five times this year, already matching last year's total… Van Dine is closing in on a personal milestone having recorded 95 three-pointers in her career, looking to become only the sixth player in recorded school history with over 100 treys to her credit… Van Dine is shooting 43.2 percent from three-point territory in her 40-game career at Tusculum, which is second all-time in TC history… Tusculum will be making a two-game Midwest road swing with contests at Oakland City and Lewis (Ill.)… It will mark Tusculum's first action against the two opponents.
WINGATE - The Wingate University women's basketball team did not play last week, taking the week to concentrate on final examinations. Last week, Wingate was ranked number 25 in the USA TODAY ESPN NCAA Division II top 25 women's basketball poll. The Bulldogs (5-2 overall) were number 16 in the previous week's poll ... Wingate returns to action Wednesday, traveling to Anderson (S.C.) University for a 7 p.m. start. The contest against the Trojans is the first of three region games the Bulldogs will play this week ... This weekend, Wingate will participate in the 2008 AASU/Chatham Orthopedics Holiday Basketball Classic. The annual event is hosted by Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah, Ga. The Bulldogs will play the host Pirates (6-1 overall) Friday at 6 p.m. Wingate will face Columbus State University (6-2 overall) Saturday at 1 p.m. ... The AASU Pirates and the Bulldogs both own victories over USC Aiken. Wingate is led by All-American point guard Anna Atkinson and her 15.9 points per game. Atkinson leads the SAC in steals (4.0 steals per game) and assist-to-turnover ratio (2.69). Bulldog freshman guard/forward Kurie Washington is the top first-year scorer in the SAC, averaging 14.3 points per game.