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3/23/2009 - WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Iowa State's Hot 3-point Shooting Eliminates Lady Bucs
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Courtesy ETSUBucs.com
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. - The Iowa State Cyclones are one of the best 3-point shooting teams in the country and the Lady Bucs got an up-close and personal look at them on Sunday night.
Iowa State drained 16 treys and Alison Lacey netted a game-high 18 points, as the Cyclones stormed past ETSU 85-53 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament inside E.A. Diddle Arena. The 16 three-pointers also tied a NCAA Tournament record – matching Harvard’s mark back on March 15, 1996.
With the loss, the Lady Bucs saw their season come to an end and ETSU finished with an overall record of 20-11. The 20-win campaign marked the third straight season the Lady Bucs reached the plateau. Iowa State – who lived to see another day – improved to 25-8.
Junior TaRonda Wiles (Danville, Va.) led the Lady Bucs scoring a team-high 16 points and fellow junior Siarre Evans (Griffin, Ga.) pitched in with eight points and six rebounds. With their scoring efforts, Wiles and Evans both reached the 500-point plateau this season, marking the first time a Lady Buccaneer duo accomplished this feat since current assistant DeShawne Blocker and 1,000-point scorer Amy Engle did so during the 1994-95 season. Junior Latisha Belcher (Martinsville, Va.) ended with 11 points, four rebounds and two steals. Belcher’s two steals gave her 91 total on the season, which broke Nicole Hopson’s single-season ETSU record set during the 1990-91 campaign.
“First off I want to congratulate Iowa State and we wish them much luck throughout the tournament,” commented head coach Karen Kemp, who has coached the Lady Bucs to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances. “I was really disappointed in our defensive effort tonight. We knew Iowa State was a great three-point shooting team and we did not get out and defend the way we should have.”
The Lady Bucs took an early 2-0 lead thanks to Belcher’s lay in nine seconds into the contest, but back-to-back treys by Iowa State put the Cyclones ahead for good at the first media timeout (15:27). Tara Davis (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) ended a five minute and thirty-second ETSU scoring drought by sinking a three of her own, but again the Cyclones heated up from beyond the arc and grabbed a 17-5 lead, forcing the Lady Bucs to call a 30-second timeout at the 12:56 mark.
The 3-point shot continued to dismantle the Lady Bucs, as Iowa State nailed three consecutive treys from the 7:16 mark to 5:52 left in the half and the Cyclones saw their lead balloon to 20, 35-15.
Iowa State eventually grabbed its largest lead of the half when Ashley Aren’s jumper with 4:42 left on clock put the Cyclones ahead, 39-15.
ETSU never had an answer for the blitz and Iowa State went into the break with a 22-point advantage, 47-25.
The Lady Bucs couldn’t get anything going offensively in the first 20 minutes and shot 28.6 percent (10-35), while Iowa State heated up the Arena with a 50-percent clip (16-32). In addition, the Cyclones drained 10 of their 20 3-point shot attempts and Lacey led the way with four treys. Wiles led the Lady Bucs with 10 first-half points and Lacey paced Iowa State with 12.
