MOC women top St. Augustine's
By Ryan Hanchett
Published in Sports on December 30, 2009 1:46 PM
MOUNT OLIVE -- Leadership can be hard to find on any young team.
For the Mount Olive womens' basketball team a pair of leaders stepped forward on Tuesday afternoon at Kornegay Arena.
Shequanta McGee and Helen Moore sparked at second half comeback and the Trojans rallied for a 68-65 victory over St. Augustine's in a non-conference clash.
In the first half the Falcons set the tone behind Allison Spikes hot shooting.
St. Augustine's jumped out to a seven-point lead at the half as Spikes buried three 3-pointers and scored 15 points in the first 17 minutes.
"We were without Brittany Miller due to illness and it took us some time to adjust to some players with less experience being on the floor," Trojans head coach Wendy Lee said. "I thought the effort was good in both halves, but the shooting was obviously better in the second."
Mount Olive (3-4 overall) began chipping into the deficit from behind the three-point arc.
Laporsha Davis sank one shot from distance and McGee added four additional 3-pointers. Trailing 56-53, Mount Olive turned to Moore and the senior delivered four consecutive free throws on back-to-back possessions.
After a Falcons turnover, McGee added a pair of free throws. Meaghan Vanderhorst buried a jumper and McGee gave the Trojans their largest lead at 67-62 with her final 3-pointer of the night.
"Playing point guard, I kind of control the game and distribute the ball to our post players," said McGee. "Once we started to get our transition offense going it freed me up for some open looks."
Crystal McCaffity pulled the Falcons within one possession with a 3-pointer of her own and immediately fouled Laporsha Davis. The MOC guard hit one free-throw and allowed the Falcons a chance to tie the game at the buzzer.
McCaffity's last-second heave came up short as time expired.
"One thing that this team does really well is that they come to the gym focused and thinking about basketball," said Lee. "Over the holidays it is easy to get distracted, but today we left all that at the door and beat a very solid St. Augustine's team."
McGee paced the Trojans with 22 points. Moore added 15 markers and Alyssa Luebs compiled her first career double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds.
Mount Olive will open Conference Carolina's play when they host Belmont Abbey on Jan. 4.