Mount Olive College women eclipse the 100-point mark for first time in 10 years

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on February 28, 2006 2:46 PM

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MOUNT OLIVE -- Senior forward Teneal Boone collected her 16th double-double of the season and Mount Olive College recorded its most-prolific scoring output in 10-plus years Monday evening at Kornegay Arena.

Boone poured in a career-best 27 points and grabbed 14 rebounds in a 104-57 throttling of Lees-McRae during opening-round play in the Carolinas-Virginia Athletics Conference tournament. Senior Anita Rogers tied her career high -- 18 points -- for fifth-seeded Mount Olive, which visits third-seeded Erskine (S.C.) College in the quarterfinals on Wednesday. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.

Lees-McRae, which suffered its second loss against the Trojans in a 72-hour span, concluded the year 12-17.

"(After) already beating them twice and thinking you could beat them again is a bad decision," said Boone. "After winning at their place, we knew they had nothing to lose."

The Bobcats, however, never had a chance.

Rogers drained two 3-pointers on Mount Olive's first three possessions, but Lees-McRae refused to pull out of its 2-3 zone. Turnovers off defensive pressure helped create baskets and when the outside shot wasn't available, Rogers and backcourt mates Keona Corley and Meaghan Vanderhorst began penetrating the zone.

The trio, which combined for 10 assists, constantly drew double teams in the lane which enabled the post players to get easy shots -- and uncontested shots -- underneath the basket. Boone, Sierra Medeiros and Alisa Jones combined for 24 points in the paint on 12 of 18 shooting in the opening half.

Jones said the emphasis is getting the ball inside on every possession, but admitted she and her teammates had trouble finishing on offense in Saturday's regular-season finale at Banner Elk. The Trojans escaped with a 66-60 win.

"Today we really executed it well," said Jones, who scored 13 points on 5 of 11 shooting. "Our defense started it because when we got the momentum on defense, our offense just started coming."

Mount Olive played an efficient first half and nearly equaled its scoring average (67 points) for the season. The Trojans averaged nearly one point per possession (65 total) and built a commanding 62-25 lead by intermission.

Boone, Rogers, Jones and Tomeka Prichard each scored in double figures by halftime. Prichard added 11 first-half points and extended her streak to 16 consecutive games with a 3-pointer.

"That was probably the best first half we've had all year," said Boone, whose previous career high was 26 points against USC-Aiken and St. Andrews. "We played together as one. There wasn't four people playing and one person not playing. There was intensity and communication."

Lees-McRae managed just five points -- all on free throws -- during the first 12 minutes of the contest. Laura Parker's offensive putback snapped the field goal drought, but Mount Olive led 33-7 at that point.

The Trojans also parlayed 13 first-half turnovers into 23 points.

"We really had a mission to set out and create a lot of pressure with our intensity on defense," said Lee of the sterling first-half performance. "We made a lot of good things happen with that and we just continued to feed off our intensity on the offensive end.

"Different players stepped up at different points in the game and we got contributions from a lot of different players. That's what you need when you get into the tournament."

Twelve players scratched in the scoring column for the Trojans, who improved to 9-6 at home this season. Mount Olive's last 100-point outing occurred in 1996 during a 119-114 overtime victory over Belmont Abbey.

Lee and Boone know there is not much time to enjoy the historical win.

Erskine (16-11) has better 3-point shooters than LMC, and Boone knows the Trojans must defend better on the perimeter. The teams split the regular-season series with each team prevailing on the other's home court.

A road victory assures Boone and her teammates of a return trip to Kornegay Arena as players -- not fans.

"That's a big motivating factor," said Boone. "We don't want to be the team watching everybody else play on our home court. We want to be right there playing, too."

LEES-McRAE (12-17)

Brittany Roberson 0 0 1-4 1, Stephanie Mullinax 1 0 1-2 3, Taukia Hughes 1 1 6-6 11, Courtney Furr 0 0 0-0 0, Laura Parker 1 2 11-14 19, Ashley Coley 1 0 4-8 6, Kayla Blevins 1 0 6-7 8, Coty Townsend 0 2 2-2 8, Whitney Dodgen 0 0 1-2 1, Danielle Ensor 0 0 0-0 0. TOTALS -- 5 5 32-45 57.

MOUNT OLIVE (16-12)

Tomeka Prichard 4 1 0-0 11, Ebony Green 0 0 2-2 2, Teneal Boone 11 0 5-5 27, Keona Corley 0 0 1-2 1, Anita Rogers 0 5 3-4 18, Lakisha McFadden 0 0 0-0 0, Meaghan Vanderhorst 1 2 0-0 8, Ashley Jones 1 0 0-0 2, Bokeeter Mozee 1 0 0-0 2, Latara Wade 0 0 0-0 0, Tilah Worthy 0 0 0-0 0, Brittney Robich 1 1 0-0 5, Alisa Jones 5 0 3-5 13, Anna Bashans 0 1 0-0 3, Sierra Medeiros 5 0 2-6 12. TOTALS -- 29 10 16-24 104.

Halftime -- Mount Olive 62-25. 3-point goals -- Mount Olive 10-23, LMC 5-22. Rebounds -- Mount Olive 50 (Boone 14), LMC 33 (Hughes, Parker 5). Assists -- Mount Olive 29 (Vanderhorst 7), LMC 5. Turnovers -- Mount Olive 18, LMC 25. Blocked shots -- Mount Olive 4, LMC 1. Steals -- Mount Olive 13, LMC 10 (Parker 4). Technical fouls -- Mullinax, LMC bench.