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After clinging to a four-point lead at halftime, Clayton State exploded for 55 points in the second half in route to a convincing 97-64 rout over Elizabeth City State at the R.L. Vaughan Center. The victory keeps Clayton State undefeated early in the 2006-07 season at 4-0. It was also the 54th victory at Clayton State for third-year head coach Dennis Cox, making him the winningest head coach in the history of Laker women’s basketball.
This victory was significant early in the season in that Elizabeth City State was the preseason favorite to win the Eastern Division of the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA), and the Lady Vikings have one of the top Division II players in All-American center Celeste Trahan.
“They (Elizabeth City State) are good, and the score was not an indication of what the game was like,” said Cox, who is now 54-13 overall at Clayton State. “But we’ve been a second half team so far this season, and that was the case again today. We just wore them down as the game progressed.”
Clayton State battled foul trouble with its post players and overcame eight lead-changes in the first half to lead 42-38 at halftime. In the second half, however, it was all Lakers. After Elizabeth City State trimmed the Clayton State lead to 64-56 with 9:14 remaining, Clayton State finished the game on a 33-8 tear.
Sharon Wiles started the rally for the Lakers with a lay-up at the 8:53 mark to make the Clayton State lead 69-56. Crystal Brown’s 3-point play increased the Laker lead to 78-58 with 6:14 remaining. In the final five minutes of the contest, Clayton State limited Elizabeth City State to only two points.
All but one Clayton State player that saw action scored. In fact, the Lakers bench was a key factor with 41 points to only 11 for Elizabeth City State. In addition, Clayton State shot 51 percent from the field and forced 31 Lady Viking turnovers.
“Our bench was tremendous,” Cox said. “Tonight was a good indicator of how deep we can be. I have just as much confidence in the second unit as I do in the first unit. There is hardly any drop-off between the two.”
Senior wing Sharon Wiles paced five Lakers in double-figures with 21 points on 10-for-14 shooting from the field to go along with seven steals. Junior center Lynette Jackson scored 12 points, followed by Alecia Humphrey and Shantel Ragin with 11 points each. Nikkisha Pritchett added 10 points off the bench.
For Elizabeth City State (0-2), Tiffany Smith scored 25 points and Trahan recorded a double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds.
Clayton State is again on the road for its next contest, this time a 2 p.m. contest at Francis Marion on Dec. 2. |
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the Clayton State Laker women’s basketball team has excelled in the
second half of its games, and Saturday’s showdown at Elizabeth City
State was no different