Wednesday, March 02, 2011

MACON, Ga. – No. 2 seed Stetson Hatters took control versus No. 7 Kennesaw State and never looked back with a 65-47 win. The Hatters advance to their first Atlantic Sun Women’s Basketball Championship Semifinal since 2005 when they captured the league crown.

The Hatters (18-12) rode the efforts of Tierra Brown’s career-high 25 points to eliminate the Owls (9-20) from the tournament. Brown was 10-of-14 from the field and a perfect five-for-five from beyond the arc. Her game-high points total also pushed the senior over the 1,200 point plateau for her career at Stetson.

KSU was tied at 2-2 and never led as the Hatters pulled out to a 30-21 advantage at the half and extended that in the second period despite 26 turnovers as a team. Stetson compensated for the miscues by hitting 51 percent (25-49) from the floor.

Brown, however, was far from the only weapon employed by the Hatters, who had three other players tally in double figures. Victoria McGowan (12), Natasha Grabowski (11) and Sasha Sims (10) rounded out the Hatter’s top scorers. The Owls were paced by Sametria Gideon’s 13 points and nine from Angie Smith. Chelcey Farrar added eight points, followed by Elaina Gray’s seven. Gray had a game-leading nine rebounds.

Stetson will await the winner of Thursday’s contest between No. 3 Campbell and No. 6 Belmont, to play in Friday’s semifinal game.

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