Monday, February 14, 2011

Macon, Ga. - Sophomore point guard Victoria McGowan (Inkster, Mich.) nearly recorded a triple double in Monday's 71-62 Stetson women's basketball win at A-Sun rival Mercer, tallying 11 points, a career-high 12 rebounds and seven assists as the Hatters (14-11, 10-6 Atlantic Sun) were able to stave off a 31-point night from league-leading scorer Briana Williams of Mercer (2-23, 2-13 A-Sun).

Stetson dominated the first half as freshman forward Sasha Sims (Fayetteville, Ga.) drained all five of her shots from the floor, going up by as many as 21 points with three minutes left until halftime and walking into the locker room with a 37-21 lead.

The Bears refused to led the Hatters run away, however, rallying from 19 points down with 12:52 left to within two with 5:05 left. Williams spearheaded that 25-8 run, scoring 14 of those points; she would finish as the first Stetson opponent to score 30 points in a game since Gardner-Webb's Sequenta Blackman seven years ago.

Head Coach Lynn Bria called timeout at that point to stop the momentum; the Hatters would respond perfectly by working the ball inside, reeling off the game's next eight points and going back up 69-59 with less than three minutes left to salt the game away.

McGowan scored 10 of her 11 points in the second half, including some big baskets and free throws down the stretch, adding four steals to her career-high 12 rebounds. Senior guard Tierra Brown (Orlando, Fla.) scored a team-high 18 points, continuing her streak of having scored in double figures in all 14 games in 2011. Sims finished with 15 points and four assists. Stetson shot 8-14 (57.1 percent) from three-point land, helped by junior guard Mairead McNally's (Belfast, N. Ireland) 2-2 performance from distance off the bench.

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