Monday, December 15, 2003

CLEMSON, S.C. (Dec. 15, 2003) - Clemson used its size advantage Monday to oust the East Tennessee State women's basketball team, as the host Tigers rolled to an 82-43 victory from Littlejohn Coliseum. "Their strength and size just wore us down," said ETSU head coach Karen Kemp. "They just have bigger and stronger players than we have right now, but we're getting better every game. That's our goal against teams like this." For just the second time this season the Lady Bucs were out-rebounded by their opponent. Clemson totaled 12 more boards than ETSU. The Tigers also had 17 offensive rebounds, which led to 15 second-chance points. ETSU was in the contest early and took its second lead of the game with 15:15 to go in the first half. Tiffani Mayes (Sumter, S.C.) scored a layup to make the score 9-8 in favor of the Lady Bucs, which forced a 30-second timeout by Clemson head coach Jim Davis. The Tigers came out of the short break and connected on back-to-back three pointers to go up 14-9 and they never looked back. Clemson took a 41-26 lead into the locker room at the half en route the 37-point victory. Mayes led ETSU with 12 points, but as a team the Lady Bucs shot just over 30 percent from the floor. Kiya Verdell (Hartwell, Ga.) added 10 points to go along with team-highs in assists (4), steals (3), and blocks (3). Meanwhile, senior Lauren Trantham (Asheville, N.C.) continued to do what she does best in tallying a game-high 10 rebounds. Trantham now has an even 700 rebounds for her career and has moved into 7th place among the school's all-time leaders. Clemson (7-1) has won all six meetings versus the Lady Bucs, a series that goes back to 1980. As a team the Tigers shot 46.6 percent from the field and were led by four players scoring in double digits led by Lakeia Stokes' 18-point performance. Amanda White, a 6-foot-4 center, contributed 13 points, while Julie Aderhold and Julie Talley pitched in 11 and 10 points, respectively. East Tennessee State (1-6, 1-1 SoCon) will head back home to host Elon (3-4, 0-0 SoCon) this Thursday, Dec. 18. Tip-off is scheduled for 3 p.m. in Memorial Center. The Lady Bucs were victorious in their home opener last Saturday against UNC Greensboro and look to win their third straight at home dating back to last season.