Stephen F. Austin
Central Arkansas
Junior Whitney Cormier Scores Career-High 24 in Victorious Effort
1/14/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 14, 2009
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - Junior Whitney Cormier recorded a career-high 24 points and pulled down seven rebounds to lead the Stephen F. Austin Ladyjack basketball team to a 76-66 victory over Central Arkansas Wednesday night at the William R. Johnson Coliseum. The Ladyjacks are now 6-8 on the season, and 1-1 in Southland Conference play.
The victory also snaps a four-game slide that saw SFA drop seven of its last eight games heading into Wednesday night's showdown with the Sugar Bears.
UCA jumped out to a quick start knocking down 5-of-its-first-7 shots to take an early three-point lead, 15-12 with 13:34 remaining. But the Ladyjack offense got out to a strong start as well, knocking down 3-of-their-first-five shots. SFA settled down and the first half turned into a tug-o-war that saw four ties, and 14 lead changes. The Ladyjacks were able to build a six-point lead late in the half, and took a 42-37 lead into the locker room.
The two teams torched the nets in the opening half as UCA was 13-of-26 (.500), while the Ladyjacks knocked down 15-of-27 (.556) shots in the first 20 minutes. Cormier, and sophomore Jordan Ford, both of whom have recorded back-to-back double-digit efforts, sparked the SFA offense. Cormier scored 12 points in the first half, while Ford recorded eight of her 11 in the opening 20 minutes.
The tug-o-war theme continued for the first 11 minutes of the second half. The Ladyjacks maintained the advantage, but were unable to shake the Sugar Bears until SFA went on a 13-2 run to push a three-point lead into a 14-point advantage with 3:43 remaining. With UCA's leading scorer, Chorcelle Taylor (22 points), fouling out of the game, the Sugar Bears had no answer offensively and fell to 0-2 in conference play.
The Ladyjacks maintained their strong shooting in the second half finishing the game with a season-high 28-for-55 (50.9 percent), while the Sugar Bears fell off the pace, 24-of-51 (.471). SFA's bench was also huge outscoring Central Arkansas' reserves, 33-11. Senior Natashia Green was the Ladyjacks' trump card off the bench scoring 11 points and pulling down three rebounds. Sophomore Ebony Alexander added nine points, and a team-high five assists, while classmate Chantol Drennan scored seven points and pulled down six rebounds.
The Ladyjacks will look to make it two in a row when they travel to Thibodaux, La., Saturday to take on Nicholls. The game against the Colonels is slated to begin at 2 p.m. from Stopher Gym.
-SFA-
