Women's Basketball ACCtion: Thursday, February 7
Four of five home teams protect their home courts with victories.
Sylvia Hatchell posted her 500th win at North Carolina.

Sylvia Hatchell posted her 500th win at North Carolina.

Feb. 7, 2008

Freshman Leads Miami to Victory Over Georgia Tech

CORAL GABLES - The University of Miami women's basketball team (9-14, 2-6) served a cold dish of revenge to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (18-5, 5-4) in a 54-52 victory at the BankUnited Center, Thursday evening.

The Hurricanes snapped a five-game losing streak that began Jan. 13 in Atlanta when Georgia Tech's freshman Alex Montgomery hit a last second three pointer in the 68-65 Yellow Jacket victory.

This time, Miami had a freshman rise to the occasion, with her team down 51-52, Epiphany Woodson came off a high screen and shot a three from the top of the key. Her shot proved to be true, hitting nothing but net with just over one second to go in the game. Georgia Tech was forced to throw a full court pass that was never cleanly caught and Miami earned its first victory since Jan. 10 at Clemson.

Woodson connected on four three-pointers on her way to a career-high 16 points. Charmaine Clark tied a season-high with 12 points.

More impressive than the strong play of individuals on offense was the collective team effort on defense. The Hurricanes used full-court pressure for almost the entire game, forcing 22 Tech turnovers. Also, the pressure led to the Yellow Jackets scoring only 52 points, 19 under their season average.

Mitchell led all scorers with 19 points, but with 18 seconds left in the game, she was trapped by the Miami defense on an inbounds pass along the Hurricane baseline. Mitchell tried to reach her teammate near half court but her pass sailed out of bounds, allowing the `Canes their last second shot.

Defense Carries No. 11 Duke To 51-41 Win At Boston College

BOSTON (AP) - Chante Black scored 11 points and No. 11 Duke's conference-leading defense held Boston College without a field goal for over 11 minutes in the second half in a 51-41 win over the Eagles on Thursday night.

The Blue Devils (17-6, 6-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) shot just 31 percent in the game, but held the Eagles to 34.9. Duke entered play with the ACC's top-rated defense, holding opponents to 35.4 percent shooting.

Abby Waner and Joy Cheek each added 10 points for the Blue Devils.

Mickel Picco paced the Eagles (17-6, 5-3) with 10 points.

BC's top two leading scorers, Stefanie Murphy and Carolyn Swords, were held to eight and two points, respectively. Both players, who usually are effective in the lane, came in averaging over 14 points.

Duke trailed 23-22 at intermission and grabbed the lead on Abby Waner's 3-pointer from the top. Keturah Jackson followed with a pair of free throws, but the Eagles tied it on consecutive baskets by Brittanny Johnson and Murphy.

The Blue Devils defense then took over, holding BC without a field goal for 11:09, and running off 12 straight points during that stretch.

Coach Sylvia Hatchell Earns 500th Victory At UNC in win over Clemson

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) -Cetera DeGraffenreid helped give coach Sylvia Hatchell her 500th victory at North Carolina, scoring 20 points to lead the No. 3 Tar Heels to an easy 79-47 win over Clemson on Thursday night.

In her 22nd season at North Carolina, Hatchell is 500-194.

Jessica Breland and Erlana Larkins added 13 and 12 points respectively for the Tar Heels, who controlled the game from the beginning.

Sthefany Thomas led Clemson with 14 points and Lele Hardy had 11 points and 14 rebounds. The Tigers missed their first 14 shots of the game before Thomas made a layup with 14:10 left in the first half.

North Carolina, continued the hot shooting it showed in a 93-76 victory at No. 11 Duke on Monday. The Tar Heels shot 56.2 percent in the opening half behind DeGraffenreid's 17 points, three assists and two steals.

Wake Topples Hokies 67-50

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - After taking No. 4 Maryland to overtime just four days earlier, Virginia Tech was side swiped by the Wake Forest women's basketball team, who pulled a 67-50 win over the Hokies on Thursday evening at the Joel Coliseum.

Demon Deacon guard Alex Tchangoue posted a career high eight assists and added 11 points and nine rebounds in the Wake Forest win. Virginia Tech's Brittany Cook was the game's high scorer with 19 points and 12 rebounds. Wake Forest now stands at 14-11 and 1-9 in conference action, while the Hokies are 13-11 and 0-9 in the ACC.

Thursday's game marks the first Demon Deacon conference win since an 82-70 victory over Clemson on February 12, 2006 at the Joel.

WFU freshman Brittany Waters had a breakout performance against the Hokies, earning her first collegiate start and posting a career high 15 points. Just two games earlier, Waters was added to the growing Demon Deacon injury report when she collapsed while battling North Carolina. The Orlando, Fla. native was forced to sit out last Sunday at Clemson as a precautionary measure.

Christen Brown and Corinne Groves added 12 and 14 points, respectively, from the post, marking the first time four Deacs have breached the double digit mark at a single game this season.

Late Surge Propels Seminole Women's Basketball to 57-54 Victory Over NC State

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - For the first 35 minutes of its Atlantic Coast Conference game with NC State, the Florida State women's basketball team couldn't establish anything more than a three-point lead. Then in the last five minutes the Seminoles jumped out to a nine-point advantage it would hold on to the rest of the way for the 57-54 victory over the Wolfpack on Thursday (February 7) at the Donald L. Tucker Center.

Florida State snapped its two game winning streak as it improved to 15-8 overall and 5-3 in the ACC. The win also stopped a three-game slide against NC State, who dropped to 14-9, 2-6 in the league.

Leading all scorers with 17 points was guard Tanae Davis-Cain (Dawson, Ga.) who got 15 of her points in the second half. Next up was guard Shante Williams (Jacksonville, Fla.) with 10 points while Mara Freshour (Nashville, Ind.) added nine. Williams also had four steals while Freshour was one of two players with two assists.

Every player on the team had at least one rebound, led by rookie Christian Hunnicutt (Jonesboro, Ga.) with a career-high seven. Freshour and forward Jacinta Monroe (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) grabbed six each. Monroe was strong on the defensive end of the floor, blocking six shots.

Both teams played good defense as FSU held a slight 35 percent (21-of-60) to 31.1 percent (19-of-61) shooting from the floor. Second-half free throw shooting was a determining factor as FSU was 10-for-10 at the stripe as part of its 13-of-19 (68.4 percent). Florida State forced 21 NC State turnovers, which it converted to 20 points. FSU also had a 32-to-18 advantage in points in the paint. NCSU out-rebounded the Seminoles 47-40.

Against the conference's top defensive team - NC State came into the game giving up an ACC-low 55.8 points per game the Seminoles got off to a slow start offensively. A jumper and three pointer by Courtney Ward (Montgomery, Ala.) accounted for all but one of FSU's points for the first eight minutes. To the Seminoles' credit, they played equally as good a defense and limited NC State two just 10 points in the opening 12 minutes.