Lady Trojans snap five-game slide

By Gabe Whisnant
Published in Sports on January 17, 2006 1:46 PM

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MOUNT OLIVE -- A handful of career-best performances sparked the Mount Olive women's basketball team to a big, team win on Monday.

Four players turned in career-highs, led by senior Teneal Boone's 16 points and 17 rebounds, as the Lady Trojans snapped a five-game losing streak with a 78-60 win over Belmont Abbey in Carolinas-Virginia Athletic Conference play at Kornegay Arena.

"I thought tonight our defense sparked our offense. Coach told us to get on the boards," said Boone, who scored 12 of her points in the second half. "Our defense has been off the last few games, but tonight we put it all together."

Freshmen Tomeka Prichard and Meghan Vanderhorst added the best scoring outputs of their young careers with 15 points each, while sophomore Sierra Medeiros posted her first double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds.

Prichard added six steals and four blocks, also career highs, as sophomore Keana Corley was held to only four points, but dished out nine assists and grabbed eight rebounds.

Mount Olive (8-6, 3-4 CVAC) went on a 20-3 spurt in the middle stages of the first half to break open a tight game and took a 33-16 advantage with 6:46 left. By that point, Vanderhorst already had 11 points, while Medeiros contributed nine points and 10 rebounds.

The Lady Crusaders (8-5, 5-2) cut the lead to 11 one minute later, before Mount Olive answered with an 11-4 spurt to take a 44-26 lead into the locker rooms.

"It was a team effort. We got some big efforts early from Medeiros and Vanderhorst," MOC coach Wendy Lee said. "We were able to go inside, then kick it out when they keyed on that."

Keyed by a couple of jumpers in the paint by Medeiros and a 3-pointer from Prichard, the Trojans took their biggest lead of the game at 53-31 near the 15-minute mark. Abbey used its ability to get to the free-throw line to trim that margin down to 12 with four minutes left, but like most of the game, Mount Olive always had an answer.

Leading 70-58 after the Crusaders missed a chance to cut it to 10, Boone pulled down an offensive rebound, got fouled, then made two-of-two at the stripe to start a 7-0 run to put the game away in the late stages.

The Trojans, out rebounding their opponents by a slim margin this season, easily won the battle on the glass, 51-32.

Nicole Woods paced Abbey with a game-best 18 points, including 12-of-13 from the line in a game that saw the Crusaders make 25-of-34 (73.5 percent). Teammate and reserve Alison Starkman contributed 15 points, while Nicole Bence posted a double-double with 13 points and 13 rebounds.

Mount Olive looks to pull to .500 in CVAC play when they host Lees-McRae on Saturday. Game time is 2 p.m.

"When you can beat a team as good as Belmont Abbey, it does a lot for your confidence," Lee said. "It was good to see us finally put 40 minutes of good defense together tonight. We realize we've got to play really good defense to win games."

Notes: The 44 points at the half was more than Mount Olive scored in both halves last Monday at Barton (43) ... Mount Olive held the Crusaders to only six field goals in the first half ... The Trojans are now 4-4 at home this year ... Mount Olive was one-off season high numbers as a team in defensive rebounds (30) and assists (22).

BELMONT ABBEY (8-5, 5-2)

Whitney Robinson 0 1 1-3 4, Nicole Bence 4 0 5-6 13, Jeanette Johansson 0 1 2-5 5, Nicole Woods 3 0 12-13 18, Valorie Bennett 0 1 1-1 4, Brittany Tate 0 0 1-2 1, Alison Starkman 6 0 3-4 15. TOTALS -- 13 3 25-34 60.

MOUNT OLIVE (8-6, 3-4)

Tomeka Prichard 2 3 2-2 15, Ebony Green 1 0 2-2 4, Teneal Boone 5 0 6-8 16, Keona Corley 2 0 0-6 4, Anita Rogers 1 0 0-0 2, Meaghan Vanderhorst 4 2 1-1 15, Alisa Jones 4 0 1-2 9, Sierra Medeiros 5 0 3-3 13. TOTALS -- 24 5 15-24 78.

Halftime --MOC 44, BA 26. 3-point goals -- BA 3-18 (Robinson 1-6, Johansson 1-3, Woods 0-4, Bennett 1-5), MOC 5-10 (Prichard 3-6, Vanderhorst 2-4). Rebounds -- BA 32 (Bence 13), MOC 51 (Boone 17, Medeiros 11). Assists -- BA 8 (Robinson 3, Johansson 3), MOC 22 (Corley 9). Blocks -- BA 2 (Bence, Starkman), MOC 9 (Prichard 4). Turnovers -- BA 20, MOC 22. Total fouls -- BA 21, MOC 26. Fouled out -- Woods, Johansson (BA), Medeiros (MOC). Technical fouls -- none.