Courtesy of Delaware State Athletic Communications
EAST LANSING, Mich., March 18, 2007--The Delaware State women's basketball team raised its national profile after a highly competitive loss to Vanderbilt in the NCAA Tournament second round contest.
The second-seeded Commodores were able to shake off an early malaise to defeat the 15th-seeded Lady Hornets 62-47 in the first round of the Greensboro Regional.
Christina Wirth scored 17 points and Carla Thomas added 16 to lead a balanced Vanderbilt attack.
The Lady Hornets only trailed 43-40 with about nine minutes remaining, then clutch 3-point shooting and inside power helped the Commodores (28-5) pull away.
Raquel Collier, Delaware State's top scorer this season, had 22 points to lead all players, Selena Galloway added 11.
Vanderbilt, a Southeastern Conference power, was an NCAA regular,
The Lady Hornets, champions of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament, were making their first trip to the NCAA tournament.
The trip started with trouble for the Lady Hornets. Bad weather stranded Delaware State at Philadelphia International Airport Friday night, forcing players to sleep on chairs, benches and the floor.
But the Lady Hornets came out strong Sunday, using a suffocating defense to stay within range of Vanderbilt most of the way.
"We were not going to use the airport situation as an excuse," Delaware State coach Ed Davis said. "We were here, and we came to play."
Vanderbilt struggled the entire first half, leading 28-24 at the intermission.
The Commodores were hurt by turnovers in the first half and couldn't get any offensive flow, attempting only 15 shots.
Delaware State whittled the lead to one point before a 3-pointer by Vanderbilt's Jessica Mooney beat the halftime buzzer.
Vanderbilt later scored eight straight — capped by a 3-pointer from Williams — to take a 36-28 lead with 16:52 left.
The Lady Hornets scored four straight points to pull within two, but never got closer. Vanderbilt led by as many as 17 points late in the second half.
"We got the rust out in the second half," Vanderbilt coach Melanie Balcomb said. "And I really liked our composure."
The Commodores shot 64 percent from the field, connecting on 13 of 18 attempts in the second half.
Delaware State shot just 33 percent from the floor.
"It was tough dealing with their size," Collier said. "But we were never out of it. We just needed to knock down a couple more shots."
BOX SCORE: https://delawarestate_ftp.sidearmsports.com/custompages/statistics/wbasketball06-07/dsuw33.htm