Thursday, December 01, 2005

Women's basketball opened up conference play Thursday night with two newcomers and two mainstays picking up wins.

Kennesaw State and ETSU took their first ever Atlantic Sun victories over Lipscomb and Belmont, while Campbell and FAU defeated Stetson and UNF respectively.

Kennesaw State 69, Lipscomb 68 (OT)
In their debut, Kennesaw State saw freshman Ashley Johnson and senior Shavonder Clarke each hit crucial shots to propel KSU to a 69-68 overtime victory over Lipscomb on Thursday night at the KSU Convocation Center. Clarke finished with a game-high 37 points and 12 rebounds.

ETSU 66, Belmont 52
ETSU handed Belmont its second loss of the season with a 66-52 win. Senior guard B.J. Banjo led all scorers with 23 points and eight rebounds and freshman forward Alysha Clark was the leading scorer for Belmont with 11 points and 13 rebounds.

Campbell 68, Stetson 50
Campbell breezed to a 68-50 win over defending A-Sun champ Stetson. A 17-2 run midway through the first half and a double-double by Adrienne Rieley propelled Campbell to victory.

Tomika Tomlinson and Letitia Dickson led the Lady Camels with 12 points a piece, but the story for Campbell was the first-career double-double for Rieley. The junior from Hope Mills, N.C. scored 11 points and pulled down a career-best 13 rebounds.

Preseason A-Sun Player of the Year Nefertiti Walker led all players with 20 points on 9-of-22 shooting for Stetson. Kim Manning was the only other Lady Hatter in double-figures with 13 points on just 4-of-13 shooting.

FAU 57, UNF 43
In the final matchup of the evening, FAU showed new kids on the block UNF how it's done in the A-Sun, besting the Ospreys 57-43. The game was the first for the Owls in their home arena since Hurricane Wilma caused significant damage to the arena's structure and floor. Preseason All-Conference pick Shontavia Williams led the way for the Owls, scoring a game-high 15 points. FAU limited UNF to only 18 points in the first half and only 30.6 percent shooting.