Dec. 20, 2008

No. 2 Carolina Rallies Past Illinois, 68-59
Beware, Western Michigan. Sylvia Hatchell doesn't like to get embarrassed.

The North Carolina coach was livid at her team's sloppy play in a win against Illinois and vowed to have the Tar Heels much sharper for their next game, which just happens to be against the Broncos on Dec. 28.

Imagine how she'd react had the second-ranked Tar Heels lost instead of rallying past the Illini 68-59 on Saturday.

There was plenty for the coach to criticize. Still, Italee Lucas had 10 of her 19 points in an 18-2 run that lifted North Carolina to the victory and a 12-0 start for the third time in four seasons.

No. 8 Duke Rolls Past Siena, 86-41
Kathleen Scheer had 14 points to pace No. 8 Duke, which shook off a sluggish start to beat Siena 86-41 Saturday night in the Women of Troy Basketball Classic.

Chante Black, Joy Cheek and Bridgette Mitchell each added 12 points for the Blue Devils (9-1), who forced 33 turnovers and shot 46.1-percent from the field.

Black, a 6-foot-5 senior center, added nine rebounds to earn tournament MVP honors.

No. 25 Tech Sneaks Past UT-Arlington, 63-56
Jacqua Williams scored 16 of her career-high 20 points in the second half to lead the No. 25 Georgia Tech women's basketball team (10-2) to a 63-56 win over UT-Arlington (4-6) in the championship game of the Bahamas Sunsplash Shootout Saturday.

Williams went nine-of-10 from the free-throw line, dished out five assists and had four steals on her way to being named the tournament's Most Valuable Player. Alex Montgomery, who finished with 15 points and five rebounds, was named to the All-Tournament Team.

The Yellow Jackets shot 80 percent from the free-throw line and connected on nine-of-12 free-throws down the stretch.

The Mavericks were led by Candice Champion, who scored 20 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Shlyn Martin added 14 points and seven rebounds

Mickel Picco Shoots Down Houston
Boston College junior Mickel Picco scored 27 of her 29 points in the second half as the Eagles escaped with a 62-56 win over Houston in the St. John's-Chartwell Holiday Tournament on the campus of St. John's University.

Boston College improves to 8-2 and will play host St. John's at 3:00 on Sunday, Dec. 21. Houston (6-3) will play Buffalo in the consolation game.

Boston College took its first lead of the game at 10:20 when Stefanie Murphy (six points, three rebounds) hit a jumper from the baseline. A Picco three gave BC a 48-46 lead at 9:52. The Eagles went up for good when Murphy hit her first career three-pointer at the top of the arc, BC 55-53 at 3:04.

Seton Hall Squeezes Past NC State, 71-65
Seton Hall squeezed past NC State, 71-65, Saturday afternoon in a non-conference women’s basketball tilt from the Prudential Center.

Shayla Fields led NC State (5-6) with a game-high 20 points. Nikitta Gartrell added 14 points and Sharnise Beal and Bonae Holston came off the bench to contribute 12 and 11 points respectively.

Noteisha Womack, the nation’s leading rebounder, piled up her sixth straight double-double with 18 boards and 12 points, while Ebonie Williams and Nicole Emery had 19 and 11 respectively.

SMU hands Tech 63-56 loss
For the second consecutive game, the Virginia Tech women’s basketball team dug itself a big early deficit, made a furious late comeback, but came up short in a 63-56 loss to Southern Methodist in the consolation game of the South Padre Island Shootout. The loss drops the Hokies to 6-4 on the year while SMU improved to 5-5.

After trailing by as many as 17 points in the first half, a Brittany Lewis (Fr., Orange, Fla.) trey with 1:54 remaining got the Hokies within three at 54-51. However, SMU got a layup from Christine Elliott and the three-pointer by Jillian Samuels to increase the advantage back to eight with a minute to play.

Tech put on one last run as Lindsay Biggs (Sr., Midlothian, Va.) hit a jumper followed by her fourth trey of the game to make it a one possession contest at 59-56 with 30 seconds to play. Any chance of victory ended when SMU’s Jillian Samuels hit two free throws and Brittany Gilliam had a steal and layup to seal the game.

Biggs led the Hokies with 15 points followed by Utahya Drye’s (Jr., Durham, N.C.) 14 points. Two Tech newcomers completed the double-figure scoring as Lewis and Nikki Davis (tr.-So., Lexington, Ky.) added 11 and 10 points respectively.