Tusculum Repeats As Food Lion SAC Women’s Basketball Tournament Champions With 77-66 Victory Over Wingate
HICKORY, N.C. -- The Tusculum College women's basketball team led wire-to-wire, earning a 77-66 victory over Wingate University in the championship game of the 2011 Food Lion SAC tournament Sunday afternoon in the Catawba Valley Community College Multipurpose Complex. Tusculum led by 11 at halftime and withstood a second half rally by the Bulldogs.
Tusculum is 21-8 overall. The Pioneers earn their second consecutive tournament title and the league's automatic qualification to the NCAA Division II tournament. Wingate is 19-10 overall. The Bulldogs will learn their NCAA tournament fate later Sunday evening.
SAC Player of the Year Jasmine Gunn (Nashville, Tenn.) led all scorers with 25 points, 23 coming in the first half. The 4-11 senior guard hit nine-of-18 field goals and three-of-four three-pointers Sunday. She added a team-high seven rebounds to her ledger. Senior guard Jasmine Parker (Rex, Ga.) had 17 points, while sophomore guard Kendal Baxter (Sevierville, Tenn.) contributed 12 markers.
Wingate junior guard Kurie Washington (Marion, N.C.) led the Bulldogs with 12 points. The first team All-SAC performer pulled down a team-high seven rebounds. Sophomore guard Sarah Wollett (Raleigh, N.C.) and senior guard CC Brooks (Mount Holly, N.C.) added 11 points each for the Bulldogs.
Gunn scored 23 points in the first half as Tusculum bolted to a 42-31 lead at intermission. She hit nine-of-12 field goals in the opening frame, including the first basket of the game (a three at 19:32) which gave her team the lead for good. As a team, the Pioneers converted 53.6 percent of their first half shots (15-of-28). Wollett led Wingate with nine first-half points. The Bulldogs shot 35.3 percent (six-of-17) in the first half.
Parker hit a jumper with 19:47 to go in the second half to put the Pioneers up 44-31. Wingate responded with a 17-6 run to cut the deficit to 50-48 on a fast break lay-up by junior forward Simone Rutledge (Atlanta, Ga.) at the 10:17 plateau. Tusculum answered with a 17-5 flurry, taking a 67-53 lead on a Baxter triple at the 4:36 mark. Wingate would get no closer than nine points in the waning moments.
The Pioneers shot 48.1 percent from the floor (26-of-54). Thanks to Gunn, Baxter and senior guard Brittni Oliver (Kokomo, Ind.), the Pioneers hit six-of-11 three-point field goals (54.5 percent). Wingate shot 50 percent in the second half (14-of-28) and 44.4 percent for the game (20-of-45). The Bulldogs made five-of-10 from downtown (50 percent). Four Wingate players hit triples Sunday.
Tusculum converted 15 Wingate turnovers into 19 points. The Bulldog bench outscored the Pioneer reserves 27-18. Wingate had 16 second-chance points to eight for Tusculum. Four Bulldogs blocked one shot each. Tusculum senior center Catherine Hintz (Hastings, Minn.) had two blocks for the Pioneers.
Hintz, who scored 47 points and had 27 rebounds in three tournament games, was named the tournament's MVP. She was joined by Gunn and Parker from Tusculum. Also on the team were Wingate's Brooks and Wollett.
Tusculum has qualified for four consecutive NCAA Division II tournaments. The Pioneers are 4-3 overall in the NCAA post-season, including a visit to the Elite Eight in 2010. Wingate hopes to receive an at-large bid to the NCAA dance. The Bulldogs lead the SAC with 10 appearances in the NCAA Division II national tournament. Wingate has an overall NCAA tourney record of 14-10 with Elite Eight appearances in 1995, 1996 and 2008.
Post-Game Interviews on YouTube
What they are saying:
Tusculum Coach Adell Harris
(On Jasmine Gunn's play) Against Anderson, she took a knee-to-knee
hit and had some bruising on her knee and was limited with her
ability to move and operate. As a competitor, she was able to
function yesterday, but not play the way she wants to. She had some
time to process that and decided that she was going to make every
jump shot she had, as opposed to being a typical Jasmine Gunn game
and getting by people and getting to the basket. She's a special
player.
They've been here before. It shows at moments. That's not coaching. They feel comfortable in this environment, they know what the situation asks of them, and they just perform. Jasmine Parker's been really good through the whole three games, I mean special good.
(on Kendal Baxter) She was definitely the X factor for us in that stretch. She was definitely huge in that stretch.
(On returning to the NCAA Tournament) Just let us be one of the eight. I don't care if we're eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two or one. I just want to have the opportunity. The fact we were the one seed in our conference here had nothing to do with the fact we won today. We had to be better. We're going to go there and have fun, and compete and hopefully with two minutes left in the game, we're in position.
Wingate coach Barbara Nelson
Hats off to Tusculum College and their seniors. Jasmine Gunn had
25 and Jasmine Parker had 17. That's two kids that were on a
mission, seniors wanting to win a championship. When it came time,
they got the job done.
As far as our team is concerned, this team has fought all year.
They played hard and never quit. I knew even though we were down 11
at halftime, I knew they weren't going to quit. When you get down
to an experienced team, it gets pretty hard. We got it down to
four, and I believe we had the ball, and if I remember correctly,
CC Brooks got a charge and she was wide open. If she had just
pulled up outside the lane, knocked down a little banker, maybe
things would have changed differently. But that's when big players
come in and make big plays.
We always play off Jasmine Gunn. Historically, she's been drive to the basket, get fouled, get to the free-throw line. Historically, she hasn't been a jump shooter or even a 3-point shooter, so we always try to give her space and as she gets closer to the basket, close the space and use your side on her. She killed that. She was three-for-four in the first half from the three-point line. She had 23 points at halftime, so we had to change that and come all the way out to the three-point line and play her. We did a much better job on her. She only had two points in the second half, then Jasmine Parker decided to kill us.
(On going to the NCAA Tournament) I think we're in. We were in the top eight in the last region poll. The only people who got upset were upset by people already ahead of us in the region. I think the eight teams that thought they were in at the beginning of the week are in, and now its just up to the committee to shuffle where they fall.
Post-game interviews on YouTube
03/06/11 2 p.m. at Hickory, N.C.
TUSCULUM WOMEN 77, WINGATE 66
WINGATE (19-10 overall)
Washington, Kurie 4-7 3-4 12; Brooks, CC 5-8 0-0 11; Wollett, Sarah
2-6 6-6 11; Rutledge, Simone 4-6 0-0 8; Brown, Shey 1-3 5-6 7;
Williams, Janitsha 2-5 0-0 6; Logan, Tish 1-4 3-5 5; Brown, Tiffany
1-5 1-2 3; Dunbar, Chantal 0-1 3-4 3; Anderson, Jecia 0-0 0-0 0.
Totals 20-45 21-27 66.
TUSCULUM (21-8 overall)
Gunn, Jasmine 9-18 4-4 25; Parker, Jasmine 6-11 5-6 17; Baxter,
Kendal 4-7 2-2 12; Aughburns, Linda 1-6 6-6 8; Hintz, Catherine 3-7
0-0 6; Oliver, Brittni 2-3 0-0 5; Hicks, Staci 1-2 2-2 4; Moise,
Fayola 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-54 19-20 77.
Wingate........................ 31 35 - 66
Tusculum...................... 42 35 - 77
3-point goals--Wingate 5-10 (Williams, Janitsha 2-2; Brooks, CC
1-3; Washington, Kurie 1-3; Wollett, Sarah 1-1; Brown, Tiffany
0-1), Tusculum 6-11 (Gunn, Jasmine 3-4; Baxter, Kendal 2-5; Oliver,
Brittni 1-2). Fouled out--Wingate-None, Tusculum-None.
Rebounds--Wingate 31 (Washington, Kurie 7), Tusculum 27 (Gunn,
Jasmine 7). Assists--Wingate 8 (Wollett, Sarah 3; Brooks, CC 3),
Tusculum 10 (Parker, Jasmine 3; Gunn, Jasmine 3). Total
fouls--Wingate 19, Tusculum 18. Technical fouls--Wingate-None,
Tusculum-None. A-621
2011 Food Lion SAC tournament championship game in CVCC
Multipurpose Complex
Tusculum wins second consecutive Food Lion SAC tournament
championship