Monday, February 21, 2005

(Feb. 21, 2005) — Celebrating senior day festivities with four Lady Bucs scoring in double figures this afternoon, the ETSU women's hoops squad improved their record to 11-15, 9-10 in Southern Conference competition with a 80-62 victory over Elon.  Tiffani Mayes (Sumter, S.C.) led all scorers with 20 points for ETSU, while Candace Gibson (Warner Robins, Ga.) tallied a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds in the win.  Pacing the Phoenix was Nikko King with 10 points, while Elon falls to 4-22, 3-16 SoCon for the year.

The Lady Bucs offense began the game on a tear with an 18-2 run through the first eight minutes of play until the Phoenix finally found momentum behind two made free-throws from Roby Shipley to near the ETSU lead at 24-10.  The Lady Bucs led by as many as 17 points in the first half behind 14 points off of turnovers and eight points in the paint through the first twenty minutes of play.

For the half, Mayes led all scorers with 12 points, while ETSU shot 46 percent from the floor compared to the 36 percent of the Phoenix.  The Bucs managed to shoot 4-10 from beyond the arc, however Elon went 0-7 from three point range and just 4-10 from the charity stripe during the first half of play. 

Dominating much like the first, ETSU went on a 13-7 run to open the second half behind a steal and made lay-up by Lady Bucs forward Nichelle Akers (Sumter, S.C.) to send the Bucs lead to 50-33 with just over 15 minutes remaining in the half.  Although the Phoenix nailed three straight shots from beyond the arc in the final minutes of the half, the Lady Bucs defense was able to hold its lead and secure the 80-62 SoCon victory.

"I was very proud of the way our team dominated this game today," Lady Bucs head coach Karen Kemp said.  "The win over UNCG on Saturday and today's win over Elon were very important for our confidence as we near the end of our season and the Southern Conference Championships."

B.J. Banjo (Baltimore, Md.) and Akers added 19 and 10 points respectively, while forward Michelle DeVault (Columbus, Ohio) led all Bucs with four assists in the win.  Free throw shooting was a bright spot for the Bucs today as they shot 75 percent for the game (22-29) compared to just 43 percent at the charity stripe from the Phoenix. 

ETSU will travel to face Georgia Southern this Saturday in the 2004-05 regular season finale from Statesboro, Ga.  Game time is set for 12:00 p.m.