Davis heeds Coley's halftime advice
By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on January 29, 2010 1:46 PM
MOUNT OLIVE -- Former Mount Olive College point guard Keana Corley pulled shooting guard Laporsha Davis aside during halftime and said, "Porsh, you've got just two rebounds."
Davis listened.
On an evening when foul trouble benched the post players, Davis realized she needed to shoulder some of the rebounding burden. The 5-foot-4 senior logged her first career double-double -- 10 points, 12 rebounds -- and Mount Olive hammered St. Andrews 69-47 at Kornegay Arena on Thursday evening.
Davis emerged the Trojans' top rebounder for the second consecutive game after a six-board outing Monday at Converse (S.C.) College.
"The first half I really wasn't doing too much and coach (Wendy Lee) was getting on me ... run the floor, box out, rebound," said a grinning Davis. "We went in at halftime and our assistant coach Keana said I only had two rebounds. I said, 'all right Porsha, you've got to rebound ... you've got to box out'."
She did.
Davis pulled down eight second-half rebounds in the 40-minute affair and helped MOC claim its eighth victory in 12 Conference Carolinas outings this season. The Trojans (9-8 overall) climbed into a four-way tie for third place with Belmont Abbey, Queens and defending league champion Anderson (S.C.) University.
Andrea Jones provided a career-high 22 points, foul-plagued Helen Moore added 10 points and Brittany Miller knocked down nine points for the Trojans. Nine players scored for Mount Olive, which improved to 13-10 all-time against St. Andrews since 1999.
"Our mental approach was to look at the big picture ... position for the conference tournament and we really rarely try to emphasize who we are playing," said Lee. "We talk about personnel and strengths of our opponent, and what we have to do to get the job done."
Moore and Alyssa Luebs drew their respective third fouls during an 84-second stretch midway through the opening half. Their absence underneath the basket allowed the Knights to get second- and third-chance scoring opportunities.
Kayla Hay's three free throws and consecutive offensive putbacks from Brittany Roberts kept St. Andrews within striking distance, 22-11, with 7:36 left before halftime.
Still up by 11 with 3:42 to go, the Trojans concluded the half with an 11-4 run. Pickett, Kirstin Mobley and McGee each recorded an assist on baskets by Miller and Jones to extend MOC's lead to 38-20 at the intermission.
Davis scored nine points during the Trojans' 24-7 run to start the second half.
"I felt like we (the guards) had to step up because the post (people) were struggling with rebounding, boxing out and we were struggling as a team," said Davis. "I told the guards, Scoot (Shequanta McGee) and Desha (Pickett) that we've got to box out, get the good position to rebound and help out our post players.
"When I did the things coach asked me to do, the game just started coming to me. Things were flowing better and we were getting easy buckets."