March 28, 2008

• 2008 Postseason ACCtion Central

Fields' Career Night Leads Pack Women to WNIT's Quarterfinals

RALEIGH, N.C. - There was no rust on NC State coach Kay Yow's team Thursday night in the third round of the Women's National Invitation Tournament. It was all shine.

Most of it came from junior Shayla Fields, who had career highs with six 3-pointers and 31 points, and from senior Khadijah Whittington, who posted the 41st double-double of her career, grabbing 17 rebounds and scoring 13 points.

By halftime, the Wolfpack led 40-25 and cruised to a 80-55 victory at Reynolds Coliseum, the team's 20th win of the season. Yow has now posted 21 seasons of 20 or more victories in her Hall of Fame career.

The Wolfpack (20-12) will play St. John's on Sunday at 2 p.m. at Reynolds Coliseum. Those two teams met earlier, in the fourth game of the season, with St. John's winning 60-55 at the TD Northbank Classic in Burlington, Vt. Against a sagging man-to-man defense, State made only 20 of 61 field goal attempts. The Wolfpack's backcourt of Fields (3-14), Nikitta Gartrell (3-13) and Megan Zullo (3-11) had a difficult time shooting.

Thursday's performance was a far cry from that, or the Wolfpack's two most recent performances, which were played 18 days apart. In the first, a sluggish Pack lost to Clemson 65-60 in the first round of the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament. In the second, the Pack trailed South Carolina almost the entire game before a late scoring spurt led to a 72-69 victory.

BC Women's Basketball Falls to St. John's, 65-56

Queens, NY - The Boston College women's basketball team ran into a hungry St. John's team. The Eagles fell to the Red Storm, 65-56, at Carnesecca Arena on Thursday.

Boston College dropped to 21-12, while St. John's improved to 18-14. The Red Storm will play NC State in the Quarterfinal Round of the WNIT.

The Eagles took a 3-0 lead with a three-pointer from the corner from Brittanny Johnson to start the game but it would be the Eagles only lead of the game. St. John's responded with a three by Monique McLean on the next possession. The Red Storm then went up 12-6 just five minutes into the game and BC had an uphill battle.

St. John's, 70 percent from the field, took a 32-19 lead at 7:45 in the game. The Red Storm took a 39-25 lead into the locker room when Recee Mitchell hit a fall-away at the buzzer. St. John's shot 50 percent from the field in the half, while scoring 15 points off the 12 BC turnovers in the half.

BC cut the halftime lead to seven points, 48-41, at 10:26 on a traditional three-point play by freshman Carolyn Swords. The Red Storm increased the lead, 55-41, at the foul line. The Eagles continued to fight and with 2:02 to play, freshman LaShaunda Pratt stole the ball and hit Mickel Picco (10 points) for a fast break lay-up, BC was down 60-53.