HOT SPRINGS, Ark. ? The 2008-09 season came to an end for the University of New Orleans as they fell 82-47 to Middle Tennessee in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament quarterfinals on Saturday afternoon.
SBC Player of the Year Alysha Clark had a game-high 35 points for top-seeded MT (26-5). Clark scored 23 of the points in the second half, finishing the game 14 of 20 from the field.
Brandi Brown added 12 points for the Blue Raiders while the trio of Chelsia Lymon, Anne Marie Lanning and Jackie Pickel had 11 apiece.
In the final game of her UNO (14-17) career, Jada Frazier scored 15 points to move into 13th place in school history with 1,059 career points. Following the game, Frazier was selected as the Lady Privateers' State Farm Player of the Game by the conference.
Ty Felder and Brittany Helm scored nine points apiece with Helm topping the team in assists with five and Felder matching her career-high with five steals.
Despite 52.4 percent shooting from the field, the second-best first half for the Lady Privateers this season, 16 turnovers during the opening 20 minutes put the Blue Raiders on top heading into the break 39-26.
MT scored 7 of 9 points to open the second half, pushing their lead to 18 at 46-28 before UNO made a push, putting six straight points on the board.
With the Lady Privateers within 12, Pickel drained a three-pointer to end the run, with the 12 points being as close as UNO would get as Clark followed Pickel's basket with 13 consecutive Blue Raider points in a row.
MT broke open the scoring in the first half, scoring 11 straight points during a three and a half minute shooting drought by UNO, to take a 21-12 lead.
The run was part of a larger 22-4 run for the Blue Raiders that started after the Lady Privateers took a 12-10 lead at the 13:11 mark of the first half on a Helm basket.
Rebounds were a large reason for the early as UNO pulled down eight of the game's first nine rebounds.
With the victory, MT advances to the conference semifinals to play the winner of the Troy-South Alabama quarterfinal at 12:30 p.m. Monday.
New Orleans Quotes
Opening Statement from Head Coach Amy Champion: “We knew when we were the ninth seed and we had the possibility of beating FAU that facing Middle Tennessee would be the toughest challenge all year. Obviously their pressure defense, their full-court pressure is probably some of the best that you'll see all year, and we had a tough time with it at our place earlier in the season, and it seems that we struggled again tonight being low on numbers, especially in perimeter players for our roster. Twenty-seven turnovers, you're not going to win many games turning the ball over that much. Again, for us being here is a little bit more than the score of the FAU game. Before the game I was very happy to see that the Sun Belt recognized the seniors that are kids that survived Hurricane Katrina but yet returned to our university. That was quite a special moment for us. It was quite moving.”
Question for Head Coach Amy Champion:
How tough is it to defend Middle Tennessee?
“[Clark] does have a nice support cast around her. She is by far one of the best undersized players that I've ever seen in my 20 years of coaching. She's tough, and I think the people that play around her make her good and make her better. To have that player on the perimeter that's 6'2” or 6'3” and be able to shoot that way?speaking of Brandi Brown?that's tough to defend.” |
|
