Women’s Basketball Cruises Past Warner
Southern in Exhibition Contest
Natasha Ferguson’s double-double lifts
‘Cats past Royals
Brian Harvey
11/10/07
(DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Nov. 10, 2007)
Feeling the effects of a long off-season
or a ton of newcomers, Bethune-Cookman
University got off to a slow start
Saturday afternoon before finally
finding its way and coming away with a
88-70 exhibition victory over visiting
Warner Southern College.
Eight
freshmen saw significant playing time
and senior Natasha Ferguson led the way
with 26 points and 11 rebounds as the
Lady Wildcats rallied from an early
19-10 deficit at Moore Gymnasium.
Ferguson made 10-of-14 field goals and
seven of her rebounds came on the
defensive end.
“I’m
playing nine freshmen with two seniors
on the court. That’s only our second
game and we haven’t seen a crowd, but I
think they’re still getting acclimated
to playing with each other,’’ said B-CU
women’s basketball coach Francis
Simmons. “We pushed up a little be bit
more in the second and from there we
said “lets pound the ball.’ ’’
Twelve of
13 Lady ‘Cats scored in B-CU’s final
tune-up for its season-opener next week
against the University of South Florida.
B-CU’s
freshmen accounted for 36 of their 88
points and leading the way was local
newcomer Jalisa Isaac, out of nearby New
Smyrna Beach, Fla., who led the Lady
‘Cats’ youngsters with nine points on
4-of-9 shooting.
Warner
Southern, a NAIA program out of Lake
Wales, Fla., took a 36-33 lead into the
intermission, but B-CU turned up the
tempo in the second half and the bigger
and more physical Lady ‘Cats wore down
the Lady Royals.
Ronke
Allen scored 17 of her team-high 23
points for Warner in the first half ,
but B-CU was twice as sharp in the
second half, enjoying a 29-19 rebounding
margin and knocking down 20-of-40 field
goals.
“The first
half we had 12 turnovers, which you
never like,’’ said Simmons. “The second
half we made some adjustments and ran
our zone offense and got it to the
person who can score.’’
B-CU
junior guard Traci Fountain scored 11 of
her 14 points in the first half and
finished with five rebounds while
freshman guard Demetria Frank registered
seven assists and all but one of the
freshmen scored.
Warner
controlled the first 13 minutes of
regulations, but finally Keturah
Newkirk, who led the country two years
ago
in
three-pointers made, brushed off the
dust of missing all of last season by
knocking down her only 3-pointer of the
night – a shot that seemed to spark the
hosts.
From there
the Lady Wildcats went on a 23-14 run as
Fountain hit 3-of-6 3-pointers and
tallied 11 points, while Ferguson was
the most active of any player in the
paint. Ferguson also tallied 11 points
and had a game-best nine rebounds in the
opening half.
Both teams
knocked down 11 field goals in the
opening half and the only difference was
B-CU’s poor free-throw shooting
(7-of-14) and Allen’s 3-pointer at the
buzzer – just prior to intermission.
Warner
opened the second half with a 38-33 lead
before B-CU went on an 18-6 run and
never let up. The only thing that kept
the Lady Royals in the game was the fact
the visitors knocked down 13-of-28
3-pointers on evening.
“We didn’t
run what we run,’’ said Simmons of
preparing for the regular-season opener.
“We’ve prepared for South Florida and
Stetson but our defense is horrible. To
their credit they could shoot it pretty
well and it’s the shots you want them to
take.’’
--BCU--