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57th Annual CIAA Women’s Basketball Tournament
Friday, March 1, 2002
Lady Rams Horn Their Way Into CIAA Finals With Dominant Effort
RALEIGH, NC – With a solid defensive effort and the repeated ability to score points in the paint, the Lady Rams of Winston-Salem State University advanced to the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association Championship Game for the first time since 1985, with a 65-53 win over the Western Division champion Lady Eagles of North Carolina Central University. They will battle the Trojanettes of Virginia State University, 57-52 winners over defending champion Fayetteville State University in the day’s first semi-final.
“I’m excited about the opportunity that we have now and I’m extremely proud of our team,” said Lady
Rams’ head coach Daymond Lindell, whose squad had wins over Virginia Union University and Elizabeth City State University earlier in the week.
Despite the presence of 2002 CIAA Player of the Year Amba Kongolo in the low post, the Lady Rams (17-12) were able to score 38 points in the paint. The smallest player on the court, Lady Rams’ 5’0” guard Lori Shelby was able to repeatedly work her way inside the Lady Eagles’ defense before dishing off to her open teammates. She finished the game with eight assists in addition to her seven points. The second smallest, 5’4” guard Phinnie Matthews led the Lady Rams with 17 points.
The Lady Eagles were forced into a horrible shooting night for the second-consecutive game of the tournament, hitting just 20-72 shots (.278) and were especially bad from long range as they made just 3-of-29 3-pointers. The Lady Rams made them pay for their misses as they controlled the boards by a 48-38 margin.
Tiffany Whitted controlled the boards for the Lady Rams with 14 rebounds, tying her with Kongolo for game-high in that category. Danielle Propst finished with 13 points and four steals for the Lady Rams.
The Lady Rams first took their biggest lead of the game on a jumper by Matthews that gave them a 46-37 lead at the 14:22 mark. The Eagles cut it to 46-40 on a 3-pointer by Shenika Worthy, but after Propst hit a free throw, Matthews hit a 3-pointer to stretch the lead to 50-40. Kongolo hit a jumper at the 11:11 mark to make it 50-42, but the Lady Eagles would not score again until 6:20 remained in the game with the Lady Rams leading 56-44.
The Lady Rams led by as many as 15 points after that and the closest the Lady Eagles would come was 10 points with 44 seconds left in the game.
Kongolo finished strong with 22 points in addition to her rebounding effort while Tiona Beatty and Shenika Worthy scored 10 points apiece. Worthy struggled from the field, however, hitting just 4-of-18 shots and was 1-9 from 3-point range.
The Lady Eagles scored the first five points of the first half on a jumper by Kongolo and 3-pointer from Tiona Beatty, and held a 12-6 lead with 15:21 left in the half. That’s when they went ice-cold from the field.
The Rams took their first lead of the game at 11:28 on a Whitted putback that gave the Lady Rams the 14-12 advantage.
The teams battled back and forth the rest of the half with the Lady Rams taking a 31-29 lead into the break.
At that point the Lady Eagles were shooting just 32 percent (11-34) from the field and were being outrebounded by a 29-15 margin.