Saturday, January 08, 2005

(Jan. 6, 2005) -  Lady Bucs senior forward Tiffani Mayes (Sumter, S.C.) posted a career-high, and Southern Conference season-high, 32 points adding five rebounds in a 74-66 ETSU victory over the Davidson Wildcats from Memorial Center tonight.  With the win, the Bucs improve to 5-8, 3-3 in Southern Conference action for the year, while Davidson falls to 7-6, 4-2 in SoCon play.  Pacing the Wildcats was guard Katie Hamilton with 22 points, six rebounds and five assists, while forward Danielle Hemerka managed a career-best 13 points and 12 rebounds in the loss.

The story of the night was the dominant shooting effort from Mayes which included a 25 point effort through the first half of play.  ETSU began the first half on a tear, taking an early 16-9 lead that would eventually extend to a 30-13 advantage after two made free-throws from Mayes.  Although the Bucs offense was on fire, the defense began to struggle in the final minutes of the first half as the Wildcats made a 13-8 run in the final five minutes of the half to near the ETSU advantage to just five points heading into the halftime intermission.

The Davidson offense began the second half much as they finished the first, opening the final 20 minutes of play with a 7-2 run.  After the under 16 minute media timeout, the Lady Bucs began to retake control of the game, after back-to-back three point baskets from point guard B.J. Banjo (Baltimore, Md.) and Brooke Wilhoit (Sevierville, Tenn.), the Lady Bucs held the 50-48 advantage.  The remainder of the game saw both teams battle for the offensive and defensive rebounds, with the Wildcats holding the 48-34 overall advantage for the game.  Although the Wildcats posted a strong comeback in the final five minutes of the contest, the Lady Bucs managed the 74-66 victory, bettering their SoCon slate to 3-3 for the year.

"I was very proud of the way our team never quit tonight," Lady Bucs head coach Karen Kemp said.  "It would have been very easy for our team to allow Davidson's momentum to continue, however our perimeter shooting and defense were key in our win tonight."

Mayes led all scorers with her 32 points, while forward Candace Gibson (Warner Robbins, Ga.) finished with 13 points, nine rebounds and a game-high four blocks on the night.  Banjo and Wilhoit added 12 and nine points respectively, while Banjo tied Wildcat guard Tia Washington for a game-high five assists.  The Bucs shot 41 percent compared to the 31 percent from the Wildcats, while each team struggled from beyond the arc as Davidson hit 27 percent (6-22) compared to the 33 percent (5-15) of the ETSU.

The Bucs will continue SoCon action when they host Western Carolina for the final contest of the ETSU seven-game homestand.  The game will begin at 7:00 p.m. on Jan. 10 from Memorial Center.