CAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL RECAP - FEB. 8
Towson 72, Northeastern 57
Box Score
TOWSON, Md. - A strong defensive effort lifted the Tigers to a 72-57 victory over Northeastern on Monday afternoon in Colonial Athletic Association play. Towson (11-11, 5-6 CAA) won its second straight after the game had been postponed on Sunday due to the weather problems.
"I thought defensively we really did a nice job and got the rebounds when we needed them," said Coach Joe Mathews. "It was good to get a strong performance from Katrina Wheeler under the basket and Shanae Baker-Brice did another good job of handling the ball and getting to the hoop."
Northeastern jumped out to an early lead in the contest as Kim Carr's lay-up at 13:50 made it an 11-6 game. The Tigers cut the visitors' lead to three on a Haliena Snowden lay-up. The two teams traded baskets over the next several minutes with Carr's bucket at 8:10 giving Northeastern a 20-13 lead. Omara Parker hit a three-pointer at 7:32 to jump start a 17-7 Tigers run to close out the first half. Baker-Brice had seven of the Tigers' 17 during that stretch and the home team took a 30-27 lead into the half.
Towson opened the second half on a 9-3 run to take a 39-30 lead with 14:05 to play. The two teams traded baskets on each end of the floor over the next several minutes and after a pair of free throws by Baker-Brice at 10:44, Towson led 47-38. Carr hit a bucket at 9:58 to start a 10-4 Northeastern run and allowed the visitors to cut the Tiger lead to 51-48 with 7:33 to play. Snowden converted a three-point play at 5:44 to extend the Tigers' lead to six, 54-48.
The Tiger lead would fluctuate between four and eight points over the next several minutes and stood at 56-52 with 3:33 to play. Towson closed the second half on a 16-5 run to claim the 72-57 victory. The Tigers helped their cause by going 12-for-14 from the foul line over the final three and a half minutes. Baker-Brice was 10-for-12 from the charity stripe during that stretch.
Baker-Brice led the Tigers with 29 points on the night. She would also add three rebounds, four assists and a steal. Wheeler just missed a "double-double" after posting a career-high 17 rebounds and eight points in the game. Dovile Miliauskaite would add 12 points and six rebounds to the Tigers' cause. For the second straight game, the Tigers won the battle on the boards as they held a 43-30 rebounding edge.
Brittany Wilson led Northeastern on the night with 15 points and nine rebounds while Carr finished with 12 points and four rebounds. Kashaia Cannon was the third Huskies player in double figures with 10 on the night.
Towson returns to action on Thursday, February 11 when it hosts Georgia State at 7 p.m.
James Madison 73, Drexel 56
Box Score
HARRISONBURG, Va., Feb. 8, 2010 - Junior guard Dawn Evans (Clarksville, Tenn./Northeast) scored 31 points to lead James Madison (8-3, 18-4) to a 73-56 victory over Drexel (8-3, 14-8) in Colonial Athletic Association women's basketball Monday evening at the JMU Convocation Center.
The win was JMU's third straight, while it was Drexel's second consecutive loss. With the victory the Dukes were able to move into a tie for third with Drexel in the CAA. Both teams trail Virginia Commonwealth and Old Dominion, which are tied for first with 9-2 records.
Redshirt senior guard Sarah Williams (Wilmington, Del./Ursuline Academy) also scored in double figures for the Dukes, tallying 10 points, seven of which came in the second half. Freshman guard Tarik Hislop (Silver Spring, Md./Paint Branch) had eight points and a game-high seven assists. Junior forward/center Jalissa Taylor (Chesterfield, Va./L.C. Bird) pulled down a team-high seven rebounds for JMU.
Senior forward Gabriela Marginean (Cluj-Napoca, Romania/Mt. de Chantal Academy) led the way for the Dragons, notching a double-double with 14 points and a game-high 10 rebounds. Sophomore forwards Tyler Hale (Baltimore, Md./Towson Catholic) and Kamile Nacickaite (Siauliai, Lithuania/Regis Jesuit) scored 13 and 12, respectively.
After Drexel scored the first basket, the Dukes ran off a 16-4 run over the course of 7:39 in which Evans scored eight points, including two three-pointers.
JMU went into the break with a 33-26 advantage and only allowed the Dragons to shoot 11-for-31 (35.5%) from the field, including 2-for-12 (16.7%) on three-pointers.
In the second half, the Dragons were eventually able to cut the Dukes' lead to two (46-44) on a three-pointer by Nacickaite with 9:49 remaining and again on a Hale jumper (50-48) with 8:11 to play, but never got closer.
An Evans three-pointer keyed a 13-2 JMU run over the next 4:21 to extend the lead to 13 (63-50 at 3:50). Evans had nine points in the run, including the first seven.
The Dukes shot 29-for-59 (49.2%) from the field for the game and 10-for-18 (55.6%) from beyond the arc.
Evans' 31 points marked her 15th career 30-point game.
Delaware 67, George Mason 63
Box Score
NEWARK, Del. -- The University of Delaware survived another scare from George Mason Monday afternoon, but the Blue Hens pulled away from a close game once again in the final five minutes and got another big effort from freshman Elena Delle Donne to post a 67-63 Colonial Athletic Association women's basketball victory at the Bob Carpenter Center.
Delle Donne, the Blue Hens' 6-5 All-American candidate and the nation's second leading scorer, poured in 26 points and pulled 15 rebounds for her ninth double-double of the season to lead Delaware (15-7, 7-4 CAA) to its second straight win and the team's fourth in the last five games. Tesia Harris chipped in with 18 points, Kayla Miller added 10 points, and Jaquetta May contributed a solid all-around effort with nine points, eight rebounds, and four assists for the Hens.
Last place George Mason (8-14, 1-10 CAA), which put a scare into the Hens back in early January before Delaware survived with a 53-44 victory, lost for the sixth straight game and for the 11th time in the last 12 outings. The Patriots, who remained winless on the road this season at 0-10, got 10 points from Amber Easter while Brittany Eley added nine points and Rahneeka Saunders contributed nine points and a team-high seven rebounds.
The Blue Hens, who trailed 33-28 at the half and were down by as much as seven points in the second half, have won only two games this season when trailing at the half and both came against George Mason. Back on Jan. 7 in Fairfax, Va, the Hens trailed 27-20 at the break and were down by as many as 11 points early in the second stanza before taking control over the last 10 minutes of play for the win.
Monday's game was originally scheduled to be played on Sunday but a winter storm that dropped over 24 inches of snow in New Castle County forced the game to be postponed. The game was played at 3:30 p.m.
following the Delaware men's game vs. UNC Wilmington that had been postponed on both Saturday and Sunday.
The victory gave Delaware 15 victories on the season, matching the entire win total of last year when the Blue Hens went 15-15. Monday's victory also improved Delaware's record to 8-2 at home this season.
"We could use a million excuses, but overall I don't think we played well," said Delaware head coach Tina Martin, who has now led 10 of her
14 teams to 15 or more wins. "We weren't focused and I wasn't thrilled with our execution. We still have seven regular season conference games left before the tournament and we've got some work to do. The bottom line is, now we have to prepare ourselves for Thursday at Old Dominion (which defeated Delaware 60-59 on Jan. 3)."
The Hens had to fight back from a seven-point deficit early in the second half to pull out the victory, finally grabbing the lead for good on two free throws by Delle Donne with 4:37 left to break the game's eighth tie at 53-53. George Mason pulled two within two points several times the rest of the way, but a conventional three-point play by Delle Donne with :57 seconds left gave Delaware a 62-57 and the Hens drained five free throws the rest of the way to stay in front.
Mason's Eley knocked down a three-pointer with seven seconds left cut the margin to 66-63, but Delle Donne was fouled on the inbounds play and hit one of two free throws with six seconds remaining to secure the victory.
The Patriots outplayed the Blue Hens throughout the first half, connecting on 14 of 29 shots from the field and taking advantage of 15 Delaware miscues on the way to the 33-28 advantage. The half featured five ties but George Mason went up for good in the stanza as Hobbs hit a three-pointer with 6:25 left to break a 23-23 tie and a jumper by Saunders put Mason up by six at 33-27 in the final minute.
George Mason led by as much as seven points at 37-30 three minutes into the second half, but Delaware fought back and took a 42-41 lead on a Delle Donne layup with 12:51 left. But Mason answered right back on a Hobbs three-pointer and held at least a share of the lead for the next seven minutes before a three-pointer by Delaware's Harris gave UD a
53-51 lead with 5:52 left.
Easter's layup 48 seconds later for Mason tied the game again at 53-53 with 5:04 left, but Delle Donne's two free throws 27 seconds later gave the Hens the lead for good at 55-53 with 4:37 remaining.