Monday, January 8, 2006
Lenoir-Rhyne Garners First League Win Of Season
Hickory, N.C. – Lenoir-Rhyne picked up its first South Atlantic Conference win of the season on Monday with a 58-52 win over Presbyterian at Shuford Gymnasium.
Lenoir-Rhyne improves to 7-6 overall and 1-2 in league play with the victory, while Presbyterian falls to 5-9 and 0-3 in SAC action.
Lenoir-Rhyne’s Amber Holt (Charlotte, N.C.) led all scorers in the game with 16 points. Denise Moore (Newport News, Va.) added 14 points and nine rebounds.
PC was led in the loss by Jessica Parris (Inman, S.C.), who finished the game with a team-high 10 points.
Presbyterian’s Morgan Johnson (Marietta, Ga.) concluded the game with a team-high seven boards, three shy of her season average in the category.
Presbyterian started off by falling behind 9-4 in the first five minutes of the contest. The Lady Blue Hose began to put some things together shortly thereafter, going on a 4-0 run to cut it to one at 9-8 with just over 14 minutes left in the first half.
Led by Moore’s nine points in the first 10-plus minutes the Bears continued to stay just ahead of the Lady Blue Hose in the first half, holding to an 18-14 advantage at the first media timeout of the game at the 9:39 mark.
The Bears then proceeded to reel off a 12-4 run to take their largest lead of the game up to that juncture at 30-18, forcing PC head coach Jessica Vanco to take a time out at the 2:53 mark of the first half.
Parris thwarted the run shortly after the timeout with her second three-pointer of the game.
Still, the Lady Blue Hose could not get any closer with the two teams entering intermission with L-R holding to a 32-21 lead.
L-R continued to add to its lead in the opening minutes of the second half. The Bears started the half by going on a 10-4 run to garner their largest lead of the game at 42-25.
Sharie Hopkins (Chesepeake, Va.), who sat out the first 13 games of the season, scored her first two points of the season on a layup with just over 16 minutes left to move the Lady Blue Hose closer.
Presbyterian pulled to within six at 48-42 with just under seven minutes left in the game. The Bears picked up one more on a free throw quickly after that to make it seven and then stretched it back to 10 with a three-point shot from Ashlei Helton (Icard, N.C.) with just over five minutes remaining.
In the end the Bears would only allow the Lady Blue Hose to get a little closer.
Hopkins hit a layup at the buzzer to net the final score of 58-52.
The layup was two of Hopkins’ eight points in her return. The 6-foot sophomore also had four rebounds and one steal.
Presbyterian next returns home to face Lincoln Memorial on Wednesday, Jan. 10 at the Templeton Center. The game is scheduled to tip off at 6 p.m.
Lenoir-Rhyne will next welcome PC rival Newberry College to Shuford Gymnasium on Wednesday, Jan. 10. The Lady Indians and Bears will kick off the first of two games that evening at Shuford Gymnasium at 6 p.m.