Monday, December 21, 2009

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Dec. 21, 2009) – It wasn’t pretty, but in the end the Lady Bucs got the statistic that means the most – a victory.

Despite turning the ball over 28 times and shooting 2-for-16 from beyond the arc, the ETSU women’s basketball team battled past a stingy Jacksonville club by hitting 27 of its 30 free throw attempts en route to 77-72 Atlantic Sun Conference victory on Monday night inside the ETSU/MSHA Athletic Center.

Siarre Evans (Griffin, Ga.) – who was only playing at 70 percent with a sore right knee – pulled through the pain to record her sixth straight double-double on the year. Evans, the league’s preseason player of the year, finished with 23 points and 11 rebounds; however, it was her perfect 10-for-10 showing at the free throw line that helped carry the Blue and Gold to victory. Joining Evans in double figures was fellow senior TaRonda Wiles’ (Danville, Va.) 21-point, 5-rebound effort.

With the win, ETSU improved to 4-4, 2-0 in Atlantic Sun play; while Jacksonville dropped to 1-8, 0-2.

“Anytime you are playing at home, you need to step up your game and win,” commented head coach Karen Kemp, who saw her Lady Bucs improve to 10-1 lifetime over the Dolphins. “It’s really important to protect your home floor, so this win was key for our team. However, if we don’t step up our game defensively, we won’t a lot of ball games. Right now we are just trying to outscore teams and not playing well on the defensive end.”

After shooting a season-low 56-percent at the free throw line in its five-point loss at Appalachian State last Thursday night, ETSU stepped up and won the game there tonight. The Lady Bucs sank 10 straight free throws in the final 2 minutes, 29 seconds to remain perfect in conference play. ETSU set season bests with its 27 made free throws and 90.0 percentage clip at the charity stripe.

“Since the Appalachian game every player probably put up 500 free throws,” commented Kemp. “The team wasn’t happy coming in and putting up 100 attempts every day, but it made a difference tonight.”