SC State Defeats Winthrop to Close Out Non-Conference Play
Orangeburg, S.C.-The SC State women's basketball team defeated Winthrop, 62-52, in a noonday matinee to closeout its 2012-13 non-conference play. The victory ends a two-game slide for the Lady Bulldogs, who is off to their best start in a number of years. SC State finished its non-conference play at 8-3.
Kourtney Williams led two SC State (9-4) players in double-figures with 16. Williams also pulled down eight rebounds for the Lady Bulldogs. Tiara Knotts recorded her 12th double-digit performance of the season with 13. Cabriel Duren contributed nine points with six rebounds and Persephone "Ci-Ci" Goodwin came off the bench to pull in a game-high 10 rebounds.
Winthrop (7-8) was led by Dequesha McClanahan with a game-high 21 points. Diana Choibekova recorded a double-double with 12 points-10 rebounds and Taylor Calvert pulled in a game-high 15 rebounds for the Eagles in the loss.
SC State controlled the tempo of the game early jumping out to an 11-4 lead by the 15:51 mark. The Lady Bulldogs pushed its lead to 15 with just over seven minutes remaining in the first half. Winthrop managed to cut into the lead slightly, heading into intermission down by 12, 30-18.
After allowing a 6-2 run by the Lady Bulldogs over the first two plus minutes of the second half, the Eagles offense came to life. A three-pointer by Dequesha McClanahan sparked a 19-2 run that gave Winthrop its first lead of the game, 38-41, with 8:44 remaining. The Eagles lead would be short-lived as SC State used a 13-2 run to regain the lead, 51-43, with 4:58 remaining in the contest. The Lady Bulldogs increased its lead to 13, 58-45, before going on to pick up the 10 point win, 62-52.
For the complete story, visit www.scsuathletics.com.
Penn Defeats Lady Bears, 79-73
PHILADELPHIA, Pa.-Morgan State's Bianca Jarrett recorded a double-double with a game-and career-high 32 points, while adding a game-high 11 rebounds, but it wasn't enough as the Lady Bears fell on the road Tuesday night at the University of Pennsylvania, 79-73 at The Palestra. It was the first-ever meeting between the two programs.
Jarrett finished the evening shooting 9-of-20 from the field and drained a career-best eight three-pointers on 13 attempts, but it wasn't enough to prevent the Lady Bears from dropping a season-long fifth consecutive game.
The Lady Bears (4-10) also received 13 points and seven rebounds from Tracey Carrington, who was coming off a 1-for-18 shooting performance in Sunday's loss to Army. Whitney Southerland came off the bench to score 11 points, while Dinah Jones chipped in with a season-high eight points to go with five rebounds and a steal in her first start of the season.
Penn (7-5) was led by Alyssa Baron, who finished with a team-high 28 points on 9-of-13 shooting, including 3-of-4 from three-point range and added six rebounds and a team-high five assists. Kara Bonenberger finished with 15 points and seven rebounds, a game-high three blocked shots, while Katy Allen notched a double-double for the Quakers with 10 points and a team-high 10 rebounds.
Despite Jarrett's performance, the Lady Bears were charged with committing 30 fouls in the game, which allowed the host Quakers to shoot 46 free throw attempts, while making 30 of them. Morgan State shot just 15 free throws in the game and made 11.
Even with the free throw disparity, the Lady Bears still nearly came up with the victory and had an opportunity to win. Facing its largest deficit of the game at 55-46 with 11:28 left in the game Morgan State used a 9-2 run to pull within 57-55 after a three-pointer by Jarrett with 9:54 to play.
But the hosts would push the lead back to nine points after a jumper by Courtney Wilson to give Penn a 69-60 lead with 5:25 remaining. Morgan State would not go away, using an 8-0 run capped off by a basket from Carrington to pull the Lady Bears within 69-68 just two minutes later.
And then perhaps the turning point of the game came when it was finally noticed that Morgan State had six players on the court and was assessed a technical foul. Luckily Carrington's basket would count, but Penn's Kathleen Roche would drain both free throws ending the Lady Bears' run and giving the Quakers a 71-68 lead with 2:50 left to play.
Penn's lead would grow to seven points (77-70) before Jarrett connected on her eighth and final three-pointer of the day to make it a 77-73 game with 15 seconds remaining.
For the complete story, visit www.morganstatebears.com.