Southland Weekly Women's Basketball Update
2/6/2001 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 6, 2001
The only team hotter than the league-leading Stephen F. Austin Ladyjacks (19-3, 12-0) is Northwestern State (14-6, 9-4). The Lady Demons, who are currently riding a six-game winning streak, defeated then third-place Lamar, 65-54, Thursday. They finished the weekend with a 73-57 victory over Sam Houston State Saturday to take sole possession of the No. 3 spot in the league standings.
Northwestern State will try to stay in the top four in the Southland so it can host a first-round Conference tournament game in March. NWLa. has seven Conference games remaining, five against teams the Lady Demons have already defeated once this season (McNeese State, Nicholls State, Southeastern Louisiana, Southwest Texas and Texas-San Antonio). The other two games are against SFA and Texas-Arlington, which are their last two games of the regular season.
With the victory over Lamar, Northwestern avenges their only loss in Prather Coliseum this season, a 55-43 defeat on Dec. 30. Sophomore Angela Davidson had her first double-double since returning from a stress fracture. A transfer from Ole Miss, Davidson tied her career-high with 15 points while pulling down 10 rebounds.
Matching Davidson's offensive output was sophomore La'Terrica Dobin, who came through at the free-throw line, connecting on 7-of-10 attempts. She hit 5-of-6 late in the second half to put the game out of reach.
Dobin and sophomore Anna Means combined to hold the league's leading scorer, Shawnta Vanzant, to only seven shots from the field and only two three-point attempts.
Northwestern State recorded its 500th win in school history with the toppling of SHSU two days later. It is only the third program in Southland Conference history to win 500 games. Northwestern, which accomplished this feat in 27 seasons, follows Stephen F. Austin (22 seasons) and Southwest Texas (33) in reaching this plateau.
Using their best shooting percentage of the year, the Lady Demons went 27-of-53 from the floor for 50.9 percent. Davidson and senior Jamila Newman led the team with 14 points and five rebounds apiece.
Net Notes Nicholls State has climbed off the bottom rung of the Conference standings after starting 0-4. The Lady Colonels put together a three-game winning streak before dropping a 71-58 decision to first-place Stephen F. Austin. With the win on Feb. 1 against Texas-Arlington, Nicholls has already doubled its Southland wins (4) of a year ago (2). The Lady Colonels have also won more overall games this season (6) than last (4).
Senior guard Katie Schreiter, who notched her 1,000th career point just a week ago, picked up this week's player of the week award. Schreiter averaged 22.5 points, six assists, three rebounds, and 1.5 steals as Nicholls went 1-1. She played all 40 minutes in both contests and scored 25 points against the Ladyjacks, tying her career best.
NICH's senior guard Dana Kelley is averaging 17 points in her last four games.
In the game against Sam Houston State, Northwestern State had its best shooting percentage of the season (50.9).
Northwestern's Angela Davidson, who returned to action three games ago after being out with a stress fracture, has scored in double figures each time and is averaging 14.25 points and 4.75 rebounds per game (both team highs) in that time.
Sam Houston State has been decimated by injuries all season. In Thursday's 67-60 loss to Louisiana-Monroe, the starting five played all 40 minutes. Then against NWLa., most of the starters got into foul trouble early. After four Bearkats fouled out of the game with under a minute remaining, Sam Houston had just four players to put on the court. Northwestern State, with the game well in hand, did the sportsmanlike thing and played four-on-four ball.
Lashinda Winters scored 13 points to lead a balanced attack as Stephen F. Austin defeated Southeastern Louisiana, 65-49, Thursday. Winters led five players in double figures for the Ladyjacks. Tami Rater and Nathesia Wright scored 11 points each for SFA and Jessica Guild and Chaquita Dilworth each came off the bench to add 10. SLU closed to within 27-24 at halftime before SFA opened the second half with a 6-0 run. The Ladyjacks used a decisive 10-0 run capped by Guild's steal and layup with 13:14 left to give SFA a 43-29 lead. Katrina Joshua scored a game-high 14 points to lead the Lady Lions, who committed 25 turnovers against the Ladyjacks' pressure defense.
SLU recovered to earn its seventh Southland Conference victory of the season with a 72-63 win over UTA Saturday, giving the Lady Lions their most Conference wins in a season since joining the league in 1997-98. After registering two wins in its debut season, SLU picked up six wins the following year and five last season.
Against the Mavericks, Deirdre Allen scored 13 points and pulled down a team-high 13 rebounds for her third double-double of the season and eighth of her career, the most of any current Lady Lion. Southeastern forced 19 turnovers and recorded 14 steals as Ann Webster, the Conference steals leader, had six.
The Lady Lions played the UTA game without head coach Frank Schneider, who was serving a suspension after receiving two technical fouls and was ejected in the loss to SFA.
Louisiana-Monroe raised its Southland mark to 11-2 with a pair of close road wins last week. The Lady Indians defeated SHSU, 67-60, then cemented their hold on second place in the league with a 76-71 overtime win over Lamar. Against SHSU, center Terri Butler poured in 23 points and Mykayla Alewine added 18. In the OT win, forward Danielle Butler (no relation) tallied a career-high 25 points and tied her career best in rebounds with 12 grabs. It was the fourth double-double of her career and third this season. Terri Butler chipped in 21 points as ULM converted 15-of-17 free throws and won its fifth consecutive road game of the year despite being outrebounded, 53-34. ULM committed only nine turnovers.
After getting off only seven shots from the floor against Northwestern, Shawnta Vanzant, the Southland's leading scorer, came back to score a career-tying high 31 points in the OT loss to ULM. Vanzant scored the three-pointer that sent the game into extra time, then registered her second double-double by adding 11 rebounds.
Texas-San Antonio picked up the 86-62 win over McNeese State and was led by senior Renda Churman's 18 points. Churman moved into 16th place on the Roadrunners' all-time scoring list with 592 points. She is 10 grabs shy of moving into the top 15 all-time rebounding list.
Freshman Sheena Johnson continues to shine for UTA. She had a pair of double-doubles in two Conference road losses last week. Johnson averaged 15 points and 14.5 rebounds and now has an amazing seven double-doubles on the year as a rookie. She leads the Mavs and is second in the league with 10.4 rebounds per game. -SLC-
