Nov. 10, 2007

Final Stats

Daytona Beach, Fla. - 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.''