IT'S ON
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28th Annual CIAA Women’s Basketball Tournament
Tuesday, February 26, 2002
Lady Broncos Beat Back Lady Bears – Advance to Friday’s Semi-Final
RALEIGH, NC – An 11-4 run midway through the second half broke open what had a tight game and the defending Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association Lady Broncos of Fayetteville State University went on to the 80-66 second round win over the Lady Bears of Shaw University.
The Lady Broncos will now face Virginia State University at 11 a.m. in Friday’s semi-final contest.
Deonda Greene’s 3-pointer started the run which saw three different players score. It was that way for the Lady Broncos (20-7) all night as they had five different players score in double figures. Greene led the way with 20 points including hitting four-of-five 3-point attempts. Timeka Lawson and Bradsheedah Elohim had 13 points apiece and Danielle Evans chipped in with 12 points.
Lawson had the best all-around game for the Lady Broncos also finishing with 12 rebounds, seven assists and four steals.
The Lady Broncos came out with an effective full-court press in the second half that led to some easy baskets and trips to the free throw line. For the evening the Lady Broncos were able to score 30 points off of 27 Lady Bears (15-13) turnovers. Those turnovers negated the Lady Bears’ 51-42 advanyage on the boards.
“Our key to tonight was stopping three people; Jamie McDonald, Chiante Wester and Danielle Jones,” said Lady Broncos’ head coach Eric Tucker, who is defending his crown with nine new players on his roster. “We knew if they got a good roll going that we would be in real trouble. We were able to not stop them but contain them,” he added.
Wester scored 20 points, Jones had 19 points and 16 rebounds while McDonald was held to eight points although she still was able to dish out eight assists.
McDonald was 0-8 from 3-point range as the Lady Bears were an ineffective five-for-26 from behind the arc.
The Lady Bears led 10-9 with just under 17 minutes left in the first half when the Lady Broncos used a 7-0 run, ending with a Clarke 3-pointer, to forge a 16-10 lead.
The Lady Broncos led by as many as eight but the Lady Bears had the momentum swinging their way with a Charrisse Perry layup and a Jones jumper in the lane to cut the lead to 35-32 with 17 seconds remaining in the half. The Lady Broncos would regain a measure of their momentum, however, when Lawson drained a 3-pointer just before the halftime buzzer pushing the lead back to six points.