Saturday, January 16, 2010

MACON, Ga. – Mercer University's women’s basketball team put a defensive stranglehold on in-state rival Kennesaw State University, as it cruised to a 60-38 Atlantic Sun Conference (A-Sun) home victory before a crowd of 1,238 at the University Center. The win, which was also televised live on Comcast/Charter Sports Southeast television, was the second-straight win for MU and fourth in its last five outings.

The Bears improved their overall record to 9-8 on the season and upped their A-Sun mark to 6-2 in keeping pace with the league’s frontrunners. The Owls fell to 5-11 on the year and 2-5 in the A-Sun.

Despite an appreciable size advantage by Kennesaw, Mercer was only out-rebounded by a 51-47 margin in the game. For Bears’ Head Coach Janell Jones, that was good enough in her book.

“Entering the game I was very concerned about (Kennesaw’s) size advantage,” said Jones. “But they didn’t destroy us on the boards. They live off those second chance points and we did a nice job getting to the ball first.”

Couple the Bears’ hard work on the glass with a season-high seven blocked shots and that would explain a less-than stellar 18.8 percent (12-of-64) day shooting for the Owls. KSU’s 38 points is also the fewest points given up by a Mercer team since Morris Brown was held to 33 in 2002-03 and the least permitted an A-Sun opponent by the Bears in a decade (when the University of Central Florida only managed 33 points on February 26, 2000).

Ironically, it was two of the shortest players on the floor – Mercer’s 5’8” guard Courtney Ford and diminutive Kennesaw guard Angie Smith – who shared high rebound honors with 12 caroms each. The hard-working Ford snagged nine of her boards on the defensive end and, more often than not, led the Bears’ transition to the offensive end.

“Ford just goes after it,” praised Jones.

Ford tossed in 14 points to give her a team-leading eighth double-double this season. She also had three assists and a game-high four steals, upping her A-Sun leading “theft” total to 55.

Junior teammate Kourtney Carter narrowly missed having back-to-back double-double games. After a 12 point/12 rebound effort in Thursday’s win at USC Upstate, Carter connected on nine-of-15 from the field for a career-high 18 points and grabbed nine rebounds versus the Owls. It was Carter’s first time leading her team, as well as the game, in scoring this season.

Mercer senior guard LaToya Jackson had nine points and a game-topping six assists. Sophomore Lacy Ramon had seven rebounds and led the Bears with three rejections, while also giving off five assists herself.

Kennesaw was led in scoring by Gia Lockett, who had 11 points. Sametria Gideon had nine points and nine rebounds as no other KSU player cracked double figures.