Monday, November 15
East Carolina 81, Gardner-Webb 52
A dominant second half effort carried the East Carolina women's basketball team to an 81-52 victory over Gardner-Webb on Monday night in Minges Coliseum.
East Carolina improves to 1-2 on the season while Gardner-Webb drops to 0-3.
Danae McNeal started the game strong for the Pirates, shooting 3-of-3 from the floor and scoring a team-high seven points. McNeal finished the quarter with a flourish as she threw an alley-oop to Raven Johnson who laid it in to make it 13-7 at the end of the first quarter.
Gardner-Webb caught fire in the second quarter, shooting 9-of-14 (64.3%) and 2-of-3 (66.7%) from beyond the three-point arc. The Runnin' Bulldogs did most of their damage in the pain, scoring 14 points inside the lane and outscored East Carolina 22-15 to take a 29-28 lead at the halftime break.
The two teams went back-and-forth with runs in the early going of the third quarter. Taniyah Thompson and McNeal scored East Carolina's first 11 points of the quarter to help the Pirates take a 39-31 lead. But Gardner-Webb answered with a 9-0 run of its own to regain the lead at 40-39.
After the two teams traded baskets, the Pirates really began to pick up the intensity on defense. East Carolina did not allow Gardner-Webb to hit a field goal for more than four minutes, while at the other end, the Pirates rattled off a 13-0 run. Tiara Chambers scored six of those points while Alexsia Rose had three assists. The Pirates extended the run with five more points from Thompson and closed the quarter with a 59-45 lead.
After a Gardner-Webb layup to open the fourth, the Pirates once again turned up the head on defense which helped them put the game away. The Pirates took off on a 10-0 run to extend the lead to 22. Gardner-Webb finally ended the run and then hit a triple with 3:54 to go, but that was the last basket of the game for the Runnin' Bulldogs, as the Pirates finished the game on another 10-0 run to close the game on a high note.
McNeal had the best game of her collegiate career, scoring 23 points on 10-of-16 shooting, while adding five assists, four rebounds, three steals and one block.
No. 16/12 Tennessee 52, No. 23/21 South Florida 49
Elena Tsineke scored 13 points and Elisa Pinzan added 11 points to lead No. 23 South Florida, but No. 16-ranked Tennessee proved to be to much down the stretch as the Lady Vols handed the Bulls their first loss of the season, 52-49 at Thompson-Boling Arena.
Sydni Harvey chipped in with nine points and Bethy Mununga and Maria Alvarez had six points apiece.
The Bulls trailed for the majority of the first half until Cristina Bermejo drained her first three of the season with just over three minutes left in the half to put the Bulls up, 19-18. South Florida then closed the half on an 8-2 run to take a 27-20 lead into the locker room at the break. The Bulls trailed Tennessee 12-9 at the end of the first quarter, however, outscored the Lady Vols, 18-8 in the second behind 50 percent shooting (6-for-12) from the field and a blistering 83.3 percent (5-for-6) from behind the arc.
South Florida then turned the tides in the second stanza, leading most of the final two quarters until Tamari Key got the Lady Vols back on top, 47-46, with just over 90 seconds left. But Pinzan drained a deep three with 45 ticks left on the clock to put the Bulls back on top, 49-47. Jordan Horston, however, scored the final five points of the contest to put the game away.
In addition to her six points, Mununga hauled down a game-high 13 rebounds for South Florida.
Tulsa 64, Sam Houston 48
The Tulsa women's basketball team claimed a 64-48 win over Sam Houston on Monday afternoon at the Donald W. Reynolds Center. The Golden Hurricane moved to 2-0 on the season for the first time since 2009, while the Bearkats fell to 1-2 overall.
"I am so incredibly proud of this team and the fight that they showed today coming from being down one at halftime and showing the fight they had in the third and fourth quarter," Head Coach Angie Nelp said. "It would have been easy to give in but we didn't and gave it everything we had."
A trio of TU players posted double digit points, including a team-leading 13 points from Maya Mayberry, 12 points from Wyvette Mayberry and 10 from Temira Poindexter. Poindexter had a team-best seven rebounds, four assists and four blocks, while Jessika Evans tallied four steals.
The Golden Hurricane had a 16-9 lead in assists, a 13-3 advantage in steals and a 5-1 edge in blocks, while the Bearkats had a 44-28 lead in rebounds.
Tulsa shot a solid 45.6-percent from the field, including 50-percent from three-point range, and 57-percent from the free throw line, while Sam Houston shot 30.6-percent from the field, 18-percent from behind the arc and 66-percent from the line.
Sam Houston started the game with a 9-0 run before a layup by Delanie Crawford put Tulsa on the board at the 6:21 mark. TU then outscored the Bearkats 9-2 to tie the game at 11-all with 4:03 remaining in the frame. A three-pointer by Madi Washington with 1:27 to play gave the Golden Hurricane a 16-15 edge, their first lead of the contest, and Tulsa owned an 18-17 advantage at the end of the quarter.
"At different times teams need different things and after getting down 9-0 we needed to take a deep breath and then I reminded them of the game plan and fired them up a little bit," Nelp said. "We hit the reset button and played more together."
Both teams shot over 46-perent in the first 10 minutes, but struggled in the second quarter as they combined for just 7-of-31 for just 22.5-percent. The Bearkats had a 9-7 scoring edge in the frame and took a 26-25 lead into halftime.
After exchanging baskets to begin the third quarter, Tulsa and Sam Houston were tied 30-30 at the 8:40 mark. TU then went on a 14-0 scoring run for a 44-30 advantage with 5:37 remaining in the frame and owned a 52-34 lead with one quarter to play.
Tulsa climbed to a game-best 22-point lead twice in the final quarter, including a 62-42 advantage with 2:36 to play, and closed out the game with the 16-point victory.
The Bearkats were led by Faith Cook with 12 points, while Courtney Cleveland added 11. Madelyn Batista had a team-best 11 rebounds.
Wichita State 76, Denver 61
Five Shockers finished in double figures and Wichita State outrebounded Denver by 22 to blow by the Pioneers, 76-61, Monday night in Hamilton Gymnasium.
Wichita State (3-0) has now won back-to-back road games for the first time since February 2019 when they won at Temple and Tulane. The Shockers already have two road wins on the young season. They had two all last season.
Trajata Colbert registered the first double-double of the season with a team-high 17 points and 13 rebounds. Mariah McCully scored eight of her 13 points after halftime and Jane Asinde set a new season high with 12 points off the bench. DJ McCarty added 11 points, seven rebounds, five assists and three steals. For the third straight game Asia Strong finished in double figures with 10 points to go with eight boards.
Wichita State dominated the rebounding battle, grabbing 23 of their 47 rebounds on the offensive end. The Shockers also cashed in at the free throw line, going 16-for-17. They needed every one of them after missing 10 of their 12 three-point tries.
The Pioneers came out red-hot from beyond the arc, hitting their first four attempts to take an early 14-6 lead. Denver cooled off with the help of Wichita State tightening up on the defensive end. Wichita State would finish the quarter on a 10-2 run to tie it up at 16 after 10 minutes.
Three Trajata Colbert layups and a pair of Mariah McCully free throws gave the Shockers their first lead in the opening minutes of the second quarter.
McCully and Carla Bremaud splashed in back-to-back triples with just under 2:00 on the clock to make it 32-26. Jane Asinde split two free throws in the final seconds to put the Shockers up 33-28 at the break.
After starting the game 4-for-4 from beyond the arc, the Pioneers would miss their last eight attempts of the half. Colbert scored all eight of her first half points in the second frame to lead Wichita State. Strong was right behind with six.
Denver quickly erased the halftime deficit and regained the lead at the midway point. With the game tied at 43, Wichita State scored the next seven points to take a 50-43 lead. During the run Asinde accounted for five of those points.
In the final minute Wichita State grabbed its largest lead of nine after Colbert scored inside, but Denver cashed in a three-pointer just before the buzzer to make it 54-48 after three quarters.
The Pioneers pulled within two to begin the fourth quarter, but a massive 7-0 run with 4:43 remaining pushed the margin right back to nine. Colbert and McCully combined to spearhead the spurt.
From that point Wichita State never looked back, blowing the game wide open in the final minutes. The 15-point margin at the end was the largest lead of the game.