Jan. 19, 2008

Final Stats |  Photo Gallery 

The North Carolina Central University Lady Eagles defeated West Virginia Tech on Saturday with a 75-69 victory at home, to extend their home winning streak to four inside McLendon-McDougald Gym.

NCCU set the tone for the game early and managed to hold off a late surge by the Golden Bears to secure the victory. NCCU shot 45 percent from the field and hit 14-of-23 free throws for the game.

The Golden Bears built an early first half advantage, going up 13-8 only to see the Lady Eagles LaVonna Hailey score back-to-back buckets for NCCU to cut the lead to one. Both teams went into intermission tied 29 all.

The second half was a close nip-and-tuck affair with NCCU holding a slight edge for almost the entire half. West Va. Tech made some runs, but each time the Lady Eagles had answers. The key down the stretch for NCCU was the ability to hit free throws in the final minutes.

The Lady Eagles got a great game from Hailey, who led the team with a career-high 23 points, including 8-of-17 from the field and 6-of-7 from the line, and had season-high 12 assists for her first career double-double.

Latoya Bennett also had a strong game. Bennett poured in 13 points and snatched 11 rebounds for her fourth double-double of the season. Teammates Jennifer Hukill and Tonia Roundtree also scored double figures with 13 and 11 point respectively.

West Va. Tech was led by Shantrelle Matthews who poured in 15 points.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE HERALD-SUN (www.HeraldSun.com)

NCCU women top W. Virginia Tech in rematch

By MIKE POTTER : mpotter@heraldsun.com Jan 20, 2008

Durham -- They had had a full week to ponder what had gone wrong in their last game, and apparently the time was well spent.

LaVonna Hailey led the way with a career-high 23 points and 12 assists for her first double-double as the N.C. Central women's basketball team held off West Virginia Tech 75-69 at McLendon-McDougald Gym on Saturday.

The victory avenged the Golden Bears' 71-49 home-court victory of seven days earlier, and neither team had played a game in the interim.

But this one turned out to be one of the better offensive efforts of the season for Joli Robinson's Eagles (4-18), who have been in the role of road underdogs for most of their first campaign in NCAA Division I.

The Eagles' Latoya Bennett had her fourth double-double of the season with 13 points and 11 rebounds, while Jennifer Hukill also had 13 points and Tonia Roundtree chipped in 11.

The game marked the first time all season the Eagles -- missing starting center and only consistent double-figure scorer Jori Nwachukwu with a foot injury -- had placed four players in double figures.

"The things we emphasized were things we hadn't done well at the defensive end," Coach Robinson said. "We were obviously better this time at shutting down some things they did last week.

"LaVonna knows the situation. We need more scoring from a lot of people with Jori out. She knows how to drive to the basket, and she did a good job of that today. Latoya also did a good job inside. And we really got a lift from the crowd [counted at 433]. We need to get some love at home, and we really appreciated them coming out in the bad weather to support us."

The win continued the program's run of success on the historic home court, where NCCU has won four straight with just one loss this season and has won 28 of its last 32 home games.

"I knew I had to step up and put up some points today," junior point guard Hailey said. "With Jori out, we need more points from everybody. I thought we were really well prepared for this game, and it was good to get them at home."

Shantrelle Matthews had 15 points to lead West Virginia Tech, followed by Marche Westray with 14 and Rachel Henry with 10. Kierra Wilkins had nine points to go along with her 10 rebounds for the NAIA member Bears (10-9). NCCU shot 45.2 percent from the floor compared to 39 for the visitors.

Rebounds were tied at 39-39, while the Eagles committed 19 turnovers to 21 for Reggie Carrick's Bears.

The game was tied 29-29 at the half, with Hukill hitting the last bucket of the period on a 15-foot jumper at the 2:58 mark.

And it was tied again at 33-33 following a Roundtree layup with 17:50 to go before the visitors went on an 18-10 run. But Hailey scored five straight points before Casey Daniel's 3-pointer from the left corner made it 51-51 at 9:48, and Bennett's layup from Hailey at 9:11 gave NCCU its first lead of the second half.

Tech responded with a 10-0 run, going up 61-53 on a Westray 3-pointer with 6:19 to play. But the Eagles clawed back, taking the lead again at 65-64 on a Roundtree layup with 2:24 remaining.

Hukill's 3-pointer from the left elbow in transition with 58.3 seconds left gave the Eagles the lead for good at 69-66. Shakeyma Adams' layup from Hailey put NCCU up 71-68 with 33 seconds left, followed by a pair of Bennett free throws 10 seconds later for a five-point lead. Roundtree's breakaway layup with 16 seconds to go completed the scoring.

"We had made a lot of adjustments on our defense from studying film," senior guard Hukill said. "They weren't able to make the same plays against us that they did last week.

"I just saw that shot was open and took it. We did the things we needed to do at the end to win the game."

NOTES -- The Eagles' next game is on Feb. 4 at former CIAA rival Fayetteville State. That begins a stretch of three games on the road before the "Senior Day" game on Feb. 16 against Livingstone.