Dec. 13, 2007

Final Stats

Demetria Bell (Indianapolis, Ind.) scored a career high 20 points leading her team to a 62-58 victory over regional opponent Mars Hill College. She connected on a career high 10-of-16 field goal attempts and grabbed six rebounds.

The last time the two schools met, JCSU lost a close one by a score of 66-64 at home (11-21-06). Today was a different story as the Lady Golden Bulls used Bell's post ability outscoring the Lions 36 to 14 in the paint to pull out the victory, giving Mars Hill their first home loss of the season.

Despite Mars Hill starting the game on a 6-0 run, the lead would go back and forth for the entire first half sending both schools into the locker room knotted at 26-all.

Mars Hill held the lead just twice in the second half both on shots by Alison Schafer. However, that was early in the game. Smith regained the lead on a jumper by Kyria Buford (Charlotte, N.C.) with 15:32 left and never looked back, increasing the lead to as many as nine.

Rochelle Bodie (Raleigh, N.C.) recorded her 900th career rebound today as she pulled down 12 boards in the contest. She now becomes the third all-time leading rebounder in school history and is well on her way to 1,000. Buford, the team's leading scorer, was not hitting the mark offensively so she made her presence felt on the defensive end. Despite having just eight points, she had four rebounds, three steals and a whopping three blocks in today's contest. Rookie Tyra Breaux (Baltimore, Md.) pulled down a career high 11 rebounds while dishing out four assists.

JCSU out rebounded the Lions 48-40. Twenty two of their rebounds were on the offensive end of the floor. Those offensive boards led to 19 second-chance points. JCSU scored 36 points in the paint and received the same number of points from their bench.

Allison Schafer led MHC with 14 points and five rebounds followed by Blanford and Shannon Lee who added 11 points apiece. Lee tallied nine boards while Blanford pulled down seven.

Johnson C. Smith improves to 5-2 overall while Mars Hill drops to 4-2. The win pulls seventh year head coach Vanessa Taylor to within four of 200 wins her career. Taylor will look for the season sweep against Elizabeth City State University this Saturday, December 15, 2007. Game time is scheduled for 2 p.m. in Brayboy Gymnasium.