Strong Second Half Leads Wingate Over Carson-Newman, Into Women’s Championship
HICKORY, N.C. -- The Wingate University women's basketball team outscored Carson-Newman College 43-24 in the second half, as the Bulldogs defeated the Eagles 69-57 in the semifinals of the 2011 Food Lion SAC Tournament Saturday afternoon. Second-seeded Wingate improves to 19-9 overall, and will take on the top-seeded Tusculum College Pioneers in the championship game Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. Carson-Newman falls to 14-16 on the season.
Senior guard CC Brooks (Mount Holly, N.C.) had game highs of 16 points and four assists to lead the Wingate attack. Junior guard Sarah Wollett (Raleigh, N.C.) added 11 points, while freshman guard Janitsha Williams (Statesville, N.C.) had nine points and six rebounds. All nine players for Wingate had at least one rebound Saturday, while eight grabbed at least four boards. Junior guard Kurie Washington (Marion, N.C.) had eight points, four rebounds and three steals.
Senior guard Mandy Mendenhall (Kingston Springs, Tenn.) had 11 points to lead the Carson-Newman attack. SAC Freshman of the Year Shannon Depew (Newport, Tenn.) added 10 points and 10 rebounds, while sophomore guard Candis Clear (Memphis, Tenn.) also had 10 points for the Eagles.
Carson-Newman used a 6-0 run; getting back-to-back threes from Clear, to take a 26-14 lead at the 5:17 mark of the first half. Wingate scored the next eight points to cut the deficit to four. Williams started the spurt with a pair of buckets, while Brooks capped it with a layup at the 2:58 mark. The Eagles answered with seven consecutive points, taking a 33-22 lead with 1:11 remaining in the half on a layup from sophomore forward Courdne Miles (Burlington, N.C.). Wollett knocked down a triple at the buzzer to cut the Carson-Newman lead to seven at halftime.
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Carson-Newman's Rachelle Dye goes to the basket against the Wingate defense in the semifinals of the 2011 Food Lion SAC Basketball Tournament on Saturday. (Photo by Chuck Williams) |
A layup from junior forward Zoriah Williams (Calera, Ala.) put the Eagles back on top by 12 two minutes into the second half. The 'Dogs had the emphatic answer, scoring 11 straight points to get to within one. Freshman guard Chantal Dunbar (Virginia Beach, Va.) had a pair of buckets in the flurry, while Wollett capped it with a triple at the 13:45 mark. Wingate took its first lead of the game on a layup from freshman forward Shey Brown (Rockingham, N.C.) with 11:26 to go.
The Eagles regained the lead on a layup from Miles, but the Bulldogs used another big run, scoring nine straight points to take a 52-44 lead at the 7:25 mark. Washington had five points in the spurt, including a three to cap it. Carson-Newman trimmed the lead back to five on a three from Mendenhall, but Wingate answered with a jumper and a triple from Brooks to take a 10-point lead at the 2:54 mark. The lead would remain in double figures the rest of the way, with the Bulldogs knocking down eight-of-10 free throw shots in the final 2:23.
Wingate shot 30.7 percent from the field, while shooting 37.1 percent in the second half. The Bulldogs heated up after a cold start, in which they hit on one of their first 13 shots from the field. Carson-Newman shot 35 percent from the field, but was held to 30 percent shooting in the second half. The Bulldogs held a 53-43 rebounding advantage and a 28-16 edge in points in the paint. Wingate converted 18 Carson-Newman turnovers into 17 points, while outscoring the Eagles 14-2 in fast break points.
The Bulldogs will make their first trip to the SAC championship game since the 2007-08 season, when they defeated Tusculum 76-74 to claim their sixth SAC Tournament title. Wingate rode that momentum through the NCAA Regionals, advancing to the Elite Eight.
Postgame interviews on YouTube
What they are saying:
Wingate Head Coach Barbara Nelson:
(On taking a season-high 40 shots in the first half and
season-high 75 shots for the game): We couldn't throw the ball in
the water if we were standing on the beach.
I was really proud of them. We spent a lot of time the last two
weeks trying to catch and shoot and not think so much. We did miss
a lot of easy shots. This team never quits.
CC Brooks absolutely refused for us to lose. She's a senior who
is not ready to be done. When you've got a senior on your team who
doesn't want to be done, they can will some of the younger players
to do some really good things. She was in there at halftime letting
them know we're only down seven and we should be down a whole lot
more.
With seven minutes to go, there was a time out and she was in the
huddle saying stop celebrating, it's not over. We're ahead but
we've got to keep playing. Her leadership today was the difference
in us winning or losing.
They (Carson-Newman) played more zone today than the previous games against us. You're going to have to take some outside shots and knock them down in order to get things inside loosened up.
(On grabbing a season-high 23 offense rebounds): Offensive rebounds were huge. There have been games we haven't had 23 defensive rebounds. For us to get 23 offensive rebounds, that was incredible. They came from a lot of different people.
The big stat was we had seven turnovers in the first half. That wasn't bad, we're a team that averages 18 or 19, so we didn't think it was bad, but we felt that they were our turnovers. If a team's going to play zone, you can't turn the ball over, you've got to hit shots. In the second half we only had three. That will improve your offensive production tremendously.
(on playing Tusculum in the championship): We had this deja vu except we lived it three years ago. CC said it sounded like a really good idea to relive it. We're hopeful we can do it once more.
Wingate senior CC Brooks:
When we went in at halftime, we were like, we got the first-half
jitters out of the way. If you saw us warming up, we couldn't hit
nothing. It carried into the first half. At halftime we calmed
down.
It started with our defense. We stressed at halftime and in the huddles that it starts with defense. We had everybody crashing the boards.
Carson-Newman Head Coach Dean Walsh:
We need to quit having a lead of seven when we come here. The last
three times it's happened, we've been beat.
They were the aggressor, it's that simple. When you don't box out,
when you don't make shots, which we didn't in the second half,
you're going to find it hard to win anyway.
What surprised me was giving up 23 offensive rebounds. For whatever reason, they took it to us there, and we let them. That's my biggest disappointment right now. I feel that the effort was there, but we didn't match their effort.
WINGATE 69, CARSON-NEWMAN 57
CARSON-NEWMAN (14-16 overall)
Mendenhall, Mandy 4-15 0-0 11; Depew, Shannon 4-8 0-0 10; Clear,
Candis 4-6 0-0 10; Miles, Courdne 4-9 0-1 8; Moore, Katlin 2-11 0-0
5; Williams, Zoriah 1-2 2-4 4; Blackwell, Amber 1-4 2-2 4; Moody,
Whitney 1-2 0-0 3; Dye, Rechelle 0-2 2-2 2; Bates, Cassie 0-1 0-0
0. Totals 21-60 6-9 57.
WINGATE (19-9 overall)
Brooks, CC 5-11 5-6 16; Wollett, Sarah 3-9 3-4 11; Williams,
Janitsha 4-10 1-2 9; Washington, Kurie 2-12 2-2 8; Brown, Tiffany
3-12 2-2 8; Rutledge, Simone 3-9 1-2 7; Dunbar, Chantal 2-4 2-2 6;
Logan, Tish 0-6 2-2 2; Brown, Shey 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 23-75 18-22
69.
Carson-Newman.................. 33 24 - 57
Wingate........................ 26 43 - 69
3-point goals--Carson-Newman 9-27 (Mendenhall, Mandy 3-9; Clear,
Candis 2-2; Depew, Shannon 2-4; Moody, Whitney 1-1; Moore, Katlin
1-7; Dye, Rechelle 0-1; Blackwell, Amber 0-3), Wingate 5-23
(Washington, Kurie 2-7; Wollett, Sarah 2-5; Brooks, CC 1-4; Brown,
Tiffany 0-4; Williams, Janitsha 0-3). Fouled
out--Carson-Newman-None, Wingate-None. Rebounds--Carson-Newman 43
(Depew, Shannon 10; Williams, Zoriah 10), Wingate 53 (Rutledge,
Simone 9). Assists--Carson-Newman 13 (Williams, Zoriah 3; Moore,
Katlin 3; Depew, Shannon 3), Wingate 11 (Brooks, CC 4). Total
fouls--Carson-Newman 16, Wingate 8. Technical
fouls--Carson-Newman-None, Wingate-None. A-512
2011 Food Lion SAC tournament semi-finals in CVCC Multipurpose
Complex