Kennesaw, Ga. - Junior guard Tierra Brown (Orlando, Fla.) scored 16 points and senior forward Ashli Jackson (Opelika, Ala.) added a season high 15 points with seven rebounds to lead the Stetson women's basketball team (5-17, 5-8 Atlantic Sun) to its first road victory of the 2009-10 season, a 54-51 triumph at Kennesaw State (5-16, 2-10 A-Sun) Monday evening. With the win, the Hatters completed a season sweep of the Lady Owls and walked out of the KSU Convocation Center victorious for the third year in a row.
DeAndrea Bullock's three-pointer with 11:12 remaining in the game put KSU ahead 42-36, the largest lead of the ballgame for the Lady Owls. Stetson answered the call with an 11-0 run, nine of those points being scored by Brown, to take the lead for good.
Kennesaw State fought back to within 49-48 on a Sametria Gideon basket with 2:34 left and held the Hatters without a field goal for the final 4:05, but Stetson made just enough free throws and got a handful of key defensive stops to pick up the victory. Sophomore guard Lyllique Roman (Poinciana, Fla.) made the biggest defensive play of all for the Hatters, stealing the ball from KSU guard Gia Lockett with 15 seconds left and Stetson clinging to a 52-49 advantage.
Jackson and freshman guard Simone Taylor (Delray Beach, Fla.) each made a free throw in the final seconds to keep the Hatters one step ahead on the scoreboard. In an eerie callback to the meeting between Stetson and KSU at the Edmunds Center last week, Lady Owls guard Angie Smith missed a three-pointer at the buzzer that would have sent the game to overtime.
Brown shot 50 percent (7-14) from the floor en route to her game-high 16 points, contributing four assists, three steals and two rebounds in the process. Taylor made up for a tough shooting day by pulling down a career high 12 rebounds with three assists and two steals; she scored all four of her points from the charity stripe. Despite losing the rebounding battle 52-39, the Hatters pounded KSU in the paint by a 30-10 margin and dominated the bench scoring 25-8, an impressive feat considering Stetson had just eight total players available to compete.
Bullock was the only Lady Owl in double figures with 11 points while Gideon (eight points, 18 rebounds) and Montinique Nixon (six points, 10 rebounds) cleaned up the glass all night for KSU. Smith and Lockett each scored nine points and dished out four assists.
The Hatters fell behind 5-0 after the opening tip but soon steadied themselves and led for much of the first half. Freshman forward Janelle Mills (Wesley Chapel, Fla.) put in a layup with 6:35 left in the first half that gave Stetson a 21-15 lead, its largest of the ballgame. Kennesaw State would rally back to tie the game 23-23 heading into the locker room at halftime.
Stetson returns home Thursday, February 4 at 9 p.m. to face A-Sun rival Campbell before a live CSS regional television audience; the game will also be broadcast tape-delayed at 3 p.m. Friday afternoon on Bright House Sports Network Channel 47 in the Central Florida area. Live Stats are available at www.GoHatters.com.
