Trojan women easily dispose of Crusaders

By Ryan Hanchett
Published in Sports on November 20, 2012 1:46 PM

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MOUNT OLIVE -- The Mount Olive College women's basketball team got off to the kind of start that most squads dream about.

North Greenville University never recovered.

The Trojan women romped from the opening tip during a 100-63 victory at Kornegay Arena on Monday evening. The Trojans (3-0 overall) improved to 2-0 in Conference Carolinas play.

Mount Olive opened the game on a 20-3 run that spanned nearly eight minutes. Tamara Nesmith scored nine points for the Trojans during the breakaway.

"It was big for us to get off to a good start," Mount Olive head coach Wendy Lee said. "Last year when we played North Greenville we came out flat in the second half and it cost us. Tonight we were ready to play from the start."

North Greenville mounted a comeback late in the first half when Ashleigh Edwards hit a pair of 3-point shots and Jaquazha Barino added a pair of baskets in the paint. The Crusaders trailed 31-22 with six minutes to play.

Mount Olive extended the lead back to double digits on a basket by Joneiqua Gary and maintained a 47-34 advantage at the halftime break.

"North Greenville is a couple of players down, but I told the girls that they could ignite in a hurry," Lee said. "I don't think that we ever took for granted that the game was in hand."

The second half was more of the same as Mount Olive's lead ballooned to 40 points and the result of the game was never in question. The final 10 minutes of the contest were played mainly by reserves as the Trojans rolled.

Gary led the Trojans with 23 points in her first game of the season. The junior guard missed the opening two contests with an injury.

"I was excited all day to get out and play in my first real game," Gary said. "The key for me was just to try to fit into the offense and once I made my first shot I felt pretty good about that."

Anamaria Zjacic added 19 points in the win, while Nesmith finished with 18.

Mount Olive gets an eight-day break before playing host to King (Tenn.) College on Nov. 27.

"I think that we had a lot of things working tonight, but that does not mean we can't get better," Lee said. "Our defensive rotations and our coverages can improve and that is what we will be working on over the next week."