Southland Conference Weekly Update
1/23/2001 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
The league-leading Ladyjacks won easily, 93-47, at McNeese State Saturday with five players scoring in double digits - Chaquita Dilworth (19), Jessica Guild (15), Nathesia Wright (15), Amy Collins (12) and Tami Rater (10). SFA scored 34 points from the free-throw line, which is a Southland team high this year, on a season-high 50 attempts.
Dilworth's 19 points - 7-of-11 (.636) from the field and 5-of-6 (.833) from the free-throw line - was a career high for the Temple, Texas, native. Guild was impressive from the charity stripe, hitting 11 of 12 attempts (.917), which tied the season-high in the Conference. She added a .667 field goal percentage for her career-high 15 points.
The Ladyjacks won their 23rd straight home game last night with a 72-49 trouncing of UTA. Wright (16), Patricia Brown (13) and Dilworth (12) led the SFA offense with Lashinda Winters registering seven assists.
ULM is hot at home, winning two more at Fant-Ewing Coliseum for a streak of eight consecutive victories, the longest same-season win streak since the 1988-89 season. The Lady Indians defeated Texas-San Antonio, 57-52, and Southwest Texas, 74-52.
In the UTSA win, Ilona Hollosy poured in a career-high 23 points, hitting 8-of-13 (.615) from the floor and 7-of-7 at the foul line.
Danielle Butler recorded the second double-double of her career with 17 points and 12 rebounds against SWT. The 12 boards tied the career-high she set two nights earlier against UTSA.
LU won both of its home games last week, 60-57 over Southeastern Louisiana, and 76-66 over Nicholls State. Shawnta Vanzant, who leads the Southland in scoring with an average of 19.1 points per game, missed the SLU game to attend her stepfather's funeral. She returned to score a career-high 31 points against Nicholls.
Net Notes With a 9-1 Conference mark, Louisiana-Monroe has its best 10-game record since the 1985-86 team won its first 10 league games on the way to a perfect 12-0 Conference season. With the two wins last week, ULM wound up a grueling schedule that saw it play five Conference games in 10 days, going 4-1 in that span.
SFA's Chaquita Dilworth had a lot to celebrate last week. She scored a career-high 19 points in the win over McNeese Saturday by registering a .636 field goal percentage (7-of-11) and a .833 free throw percentage (5-of-6) after turning 22 the day before.
Although she missed Lamar's game against Southeastern Louisiana due to her stepfather's funeral, Shawnta Vanzant didn't lose any ground in the Conference statistics. She still leads the league in scoring with 19.1 points per game and three-pointers made with 49, 13 ahead of the next best effort, which is 36 from Sam Houston State's Stacy Allen.
Danyell Grimes, who entered Lamar's game against SLU averaging 5.9 points, led LU with a career-high 21 points.
After a close first half, a 17-2 run in the second stanza propelled Northwestern past Southwest Texas, 71-63, last Thursday. Timely shooting helped the Lady Demons end a three-game losing streak. In her first collegiate start, Katrina Swanigan recorded her first double-double with 11 points and a career-high 12 rebounds. With five blocked shots in two games, the freshman forward now leads the team with 10 blocks on the season, which ranks eighth in the Southland.
Northwestern found itself in a low-scoring defensive struggle against Texas-San Antonio Saturday afternoon. The Lady Demons prevailed, 45-43, with Jamila Newman scoring 13 points, followed by Katrina Swanigan with 10. Swanigan and Kia Converse each grabbed a game-high nine rebounds.
When the Lady Demons take on Centenary in non-Conference action Wednesday, they will be putting an undefeated record on the line. In nine previous meetings, including one earlier this season, the Lady Demons have never lost to the Ladies. Since Centenary reinstated its women's basketball program last year after 15 years, Northwestern State is 3-0.
After being picked to finish last in both Conference preseason polls (head coaches and SIDs), UTSA (7-9, 5-4) has matched its win total of a season ago and is currently in a position to qualify for the Southland tournament midway through the Conference schedule. The Roadrunners sit in the middle of the pack after dropping a pair of road games last week.
Senior center Renda Churman had nearly identical games for UTSA. Against ULM, she had 16 points, seven rebounds, three assists and a block. In a tough defensive game at NWLa., she scored a game-high 18 points, pulled down seven rebounds and notched three assists.
SLU had its season-high three-game winning streak halted by Lamar, 60-57, Thursday night in Beaumont. Stacey Turner, who led the Lady Lions with 13 points, nailed a three-pointer from the top of the key that cut the LU lead to 58-57 with 28.0 seconds remaining in the game. But Marilynn Brockman hit two free throws with 25.6 seconds left and Nakita Miles got a steal with 10.8 left to seal the Lady Cardinals' win. SLU's Ann Webster added 12 points followed by Deirdre Allen's nine points and career-high 14 rebounds.
Turner scored 23 points and Webster tallied 13, including five free throws in the final minutes, to lead SLU to a 69-64 win over SHSU Saturday afternoon. Turner came off the bench to score 17 points in the first half, including back-to-back threes, as the Lady Lions built a 31-27 halftime lead. Her three-pointer with 3:30 remaining in the game helped SLU pull away and the give the Lady Lions their first win in Huntsville since the 1986-87 season.
Sam Houston State clobbered Nicholls State, 85-46, with Brenda Abakwue tallying 32 points and 12 rebounds. Stacy Allen added 20 points while Rotasha Allison also recorded a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Shantasha Simmons got on the scoreboard with eight points and 10 boards. Katie Schreiter was the Lady Colonels' leading scorer with 13 points.
Allen led the Bearkats in the SLU contest with 23 points. Allison and Olivia Villanueva each added 16 points. Abakwue, who averaged 33 points in her last two games, was held to just nine points (2-for-16 from the field). She did contribute mightily underneath with a Conference season-high 22 rebounds, helping SHSU to a 44-37 advantage on the boards.
Allen has scored in double figures in all but two games this year, including highs of 22 points at Texas and Northwestern State.
SHSU's Kandance Wells leads the league in assists with an average of 4.60 per game. She tied the school record set by LaKeita Richardson in 1997 with 15 assists last Thursday against Nicholls.
UTA's Renee Wharekura scored a game-high 17 points in a 69-63 loss at McNeese Thursday. LaTosha Stigler came off the bench to score 14 points while Tawana Simpson scored 12 and Sheena Johnson added 11 with 10 rebounds for the Mavericks. Tasha Campbell was held to six points, halting her double-figure scoring streak at seven straight games.
Johnson, a freshman forward/center from Houston, leads the Mavs in rebounds per game with 9.4. The UTA statistical files date back to the 1977-78 season, the Mavericks' sixth season of women's intercollegiate hoops. During that time, no freshman has ever led the team in rebounding.
Nicholls picked up its second Southland win with a 57-48 decision over McNeese last night. Dana Kelley led all scorers with 16 points followed by Heidi Broussard, who added 13. Tremaine Robinson pulled down a career-high 19 rebounds and had four steals.
Senior guard Katie Schreiter is 11 points away from scoring her 1,000 career point at Nicholls. -SLC-
