CenturyTel Southland Conference Classic First-Round Game Recaps
3/7/2001 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
March 7, 2001
MEN
No. 1 McNEESE STATE 83 No. 8 LOUISIANA-MONROE 78 Lake Charles, La. * Attendance: 4,000 McNeese State (21-7), the Southland's regular-season champ, had five players reach double figures in scoring in fighting off a pesky Louisiana-Monroe (11-17) team in the first round of the CenturyTel Classic. The Cowboys used 18 offensive rebounds on their way to out boarding the Indians 50-41 in a tight game all the way. ULM's Nick Coln had a wide open three-point attempt in the closing seconds clang off the rim and McNeese added two more points to win by five. Tierre Brown led all scorers with 20 points while the Southland's top scorer, Demond Mallet, who was named the Player of the Year in the Conference earlier in the week, was held to 13, over eight below his average. Ira Miller and Ben Perkins picked up the slack as they scored 16 and 15, respectively off the bench for McNeese.
No. 2 TEXAS-SAN ANTONIO 71 No. 7 SOUTHWEST TEXAS STATE 69 San Antonio, Texas * Attendance: 2,356 McEverett Powers scored on a short jumper with 0.4 seconds left on the clock to help second-seeded Texas-San Antonio (14-14) escape with a 71-69 win over visiting Southwest Texas State (13-15). The win comes a year after SWT upended the Roadrunners in first-round action of the CenturyTel Classic in a game which was also played at the UTSA Convocation Center. Powers, a junior from Memphis, Tenn., finished the night with 14 points and eight rebounds. UTSA was led by first-team All-Southland performer Devin Brown with 20 points and a team-high nine rebounds. Clay Click scored 18 in the losing effort for the Bobcats.
No. 6 NORTHWESTERN STATE 68 No. 3 NICHOLLS STATE 61 Thibodaux, La. * Attendance: 650 Call it a total team effort as Northwestern State's leading scorer had just 13 points and its top rebounder grabbed just five in a first-round CenturyTel Classic victory at Nicholls State on Tuesday. The sixth-seeded Demons have now pulled off road upsets in two straight Classics. Last season, the Demons won on the road as the No. 5 seed in the opening round before advancing all the way to the title game. Northwestern (16-12) received 13 points from Chris Thompson and Michael Byars-Dawson while eight others combined for the remaining 42 points. Thompson led the Demons with five rebounds, but made his biggest impact on the defensive end with a tournament-record tying seven steals. The Demons took care of the ball on the offensive end with just 12 turnovers while forcing Nicholls (14-14) into 26.
No. 4 SAM HOUSTON STATE 103 No. 5 TEXAS-ARLINGTON 98 (2 ot) Huntsville, Texas * Attendance: 1,499 Sam Houston State senior Senecca Wall scored 45 points in one of the best games played in the Southland this season as the fourth-seeded Bearkats took a double-overtime thriller from No. 5-seeded Texas-Arlington, 103-98. His performance was two points shy of both a SHSU school record and a Southland Conference Tournament mark. In the game, the two teams accounted for 15 lead changes, 14 ties, and the widest margin all night was seven. Wall hit a 3-pointer at the 4:30 mark of second overtime and SHSU (16-12) never trailed again. UTA (13-15) got 30 points from Steven Barber and 18 from Jabari Johnson, but it wasn't enough as a cast of Bearkats combined to hit nine 3-pointers in the game. Overshadowed by Wall's 45 points were 19 put up off the bench by Demetrice Sims. A junior from Houston, Texas, Sims canned 7-of-12 shots from the floor, including 5-of-8 from behind the 3-point arc.
WOMEN
No. 1 STEPHEN F. AUSTIN 79 No. 8 SOUTHWEST TEXAS 42 Nacogdoches, Texas * Attendance: 307 Stephen F. Austin (24-6) halted its two-game losing streak with a 79-42 rout of Southwest Texas (10-18) by shooting .468 (29-of-62) from the field and .842 (16-of-19) from the free-throw line. The Ladyjacks outrebounded the Bobcats, 48-26, and limited SWT to only eight offensive boards. SFA was also on the mark behind the three-point arc, hitting five of nine attempts (.556). Latisha Prater led all scorers with 14 points while Tami Rater pulled down a game-high nine rebounds Four Ladyjacks hit double digits led by Prater - Yolanda Grant (11), Amy Collins (11), and Nathesia Wright (10). Mercy Okorie was the Bobcats' leading scorer with 12 points while Megan Woods, who tied the Southland tournament record for most free-throw attempts with 14, scored 11 points.
No. 2 LOUISIANA-MONROE 85 No. 7 NICHOLLS STATE 66 Monroe, La. * Attendance: 407 Terri Butler's double-double of 20 points and 10 rebounds led Louisiana-Monroe (20-8) past Nicholls State (9-19), 85-66, to advance to its fourth consecutive semifinal appearance in the CenturyTel Classic. Although they turned the ball over 24 times, the Lady Indians dominated the Lady Colonels, leading by as much as 24 at one point. ULM outrebounded NICH, 49-31, and hit .536 percent of its shots (30-of-56) from the field to NICH's .353 (24-of-68). Butler's 20 points was matched on Nicholls' side by senior Katie Schreiter, who logged 40 minutes for her seventh straight complete game.
No. 3 NORTHWESTERN STATE 82 No. 6 SOUTHEASTERN LA. 60 Natchitoches, La. * Attendance: 930 Northwestern State (22-6) extended its winning streak to 14 games, fifth-best in the nation, by pulling away from Southeastern Louisiana (12-16) in the second half to win, 82-60. The two teams were locked at 32 at the half, but the Lady Demons improved their shooting accuracy from .344 in the first stanza to .571 in the second for an overall percentage of .450 (27-of-60) from the field. Kia Converse was on fire, scoring 27 points on three pointers and 10-for-10 from the free-throw line, which ties a Southland tournament record for free-throw percentage at 1.000. Converse broke the league and school records for career three-pointers by scoring three treys to improve to 215 in four years. For the Lady Lions, Stacey Turner turned in a double-double with a team-high 15 points and 10 rebounds. Four SLU players scored in double figures - Turner, Tamika Williams (11), Ann Webster (11), and Deirdre Allen (10).
No. 4 TEXAS-SAN ANTONIO 80 No. 5 LAMAR 59 San Antonio, Texas * Attendance: 738 Texas-San Antonio (16-12) continued its turnaround season by advancing to the semifinals of the CenturyTel Classic for only the second time with an 80-59 win over Lamar (12-16). The Roadrunners, under first-year head coach Rae Rippetoe-Blair, who was named Southland Coach of the Year Sunday, finished the regular season as the No. 4 seed after last season's 7-20, 3-15 (tied for 10th) performance under an interim coach. They used 25-for-46 shooting (.543) and their NCAA-ranked stingy defense to stifle the Lady Cardinals, although Shawnta Vanzant, the league's leading scorer and player of the year, managed a game-high 22 points. Julie Rampley led the Roadrunners with 16 points followed by Jene Vanderbilt (13) and Amber Prose (12). Lamar, the Southland's best three-point shooting team behind Vanzant's 3.42 treys per game, could only sink 5-of-19 attempts from three-point range.
CENTURYTEL SOUTHLAND CONFERENCE CLASSIC
March 6, 2001 First-Round Games Campus Sites
MEN'S FIRST-ROUND PAIRINGS
at No. 1 McNeese State 83, No. 8 Louisiana-Monroe 78
at No. 2 Texas-San Antonio 71, No. 7 Southwest Texas 69
No. 6 Northwestern State 68, at No. 3 Nicholls State 61
at No. 4 Sam Houston State 103, No. 5 Texas-Arlington 98 (2ot)
WOMEN'S FIRST-ROUND PAIRINGS
at No. 1 Stephen F. Austin 79, No. 8 Southwest Texas 42
at No. 2 Louisiana-Monroe 85, No. 7 Nicholls State 66
at No. 3 Northwestern State 82, No. 6 Southeastern Louisiana 60
at No. 4 Texas-San Antonio 80, No. 5 Lamar 59
For ticket information contact the host university ticket office
March 8 - 10, 2001 Semifinals and Championships Bossier City, Louisiana
March 8
Louisiana-Monroe (20-8) vs. Northwestern State (22-6), 6 p.m.
Texas-San Antonio (16-12) vs. Stephen F. Austin (24-6), 8 p.m.
March 9
Sam Houston State (16-12) vs. McNeese State (21-7), 6 p.m.
Northwestern State (16-12) vs. Texas-San Antonio (14-14), 8 p.m.
March 10
Men's Championship Game 11 a.m.
Men's title game live on ESPN-2
March 10
Women's Championship Game 3 p.m.
Women's title game live on FOX Sports Net
For ticket information call TicketMaster at (318) 741-9700
For Travel Information
Call the Shreveport-Bossier Convention & Tourist Bureau * 1-888-45-VISIT
or visit
www.shreveport-bossier.org
