No. 3 Cedarville Pulls Away from Lady Cougars for 78-55 Win


	Lady Cougar Basketball Game Recap No. 3 Cedarville Pulls Away from Lady Cougars for 78-55 Win written by Dave Parsons, Sports Information Director Game Boxscore CEDARVILLE, Ohio (2-13-2010) - The Mount Vernon Nazarene University women’s basketball team played right with NAIA Division II No. 3 Cedarville University for the first half, but the Lady Jackets showed why they have their lofty ranking in the second half as they pulled away for a 78-55 American Mideast Conference victory in the Callan Athletic Center on Saturday night. The visiting Lady Cougars (17-6, 10-5 AMC), who received votes in the latest poll, got off to a good start in the game as MVNU built a 22-15 lead by the 9:13 mark of the first half. Junior wing Kelli Pollock led the way by draining a trio of three-pointers for nine quick points, and junior center Amanda Himes added six points. Cedarville battled back to regain the lead 31-28 on a three-pointer by Rachel Hurley with 4:11 left in the half. Junior guard Lauren Johnson snapped a 4:31 scoring drought for the Lady Cougars with a trey with 1:44 left before the break to knot the score at 31-31, but Alison Lemon gave the Lady Jackets a 33-31 halftime lead with a jumper with 54 seconds left. Pollock paced MVNU with nine first-half points as she went 3-for-4 from outside the three-point arc. Himes added eight points and seven rebounds, while Johnson contributed seven points and three assists. The Lady Cougars shot 33.3 percent from the field (11-for-33), 38.5 percent from three-point range (5-for-13), and 66.7 percent from the free throw line (4-for-6). Cedarville was led by Hurley and Lydia Miller with eight points apiece. The Lady Jackets shot 37.1 percent from the field (13-for-35), 30 percent from three-point range (3-for-10), and made all four of their free throw attempts. Cedarville opened the second half with a 15-6 run over the first six minutes to build a 48-37 advantage after another trey by Hurley. Aubrey Siemon led the second-half start with six points during that span. A layup and three-pointer by freshman guard Melissa Eickholt on back-to-back possessions trimmed the lead to 48-42 with 13 minutes remaining. However, that would be as close as MVNU would get the rest of the way as the Lady Jackets closed the game on a 30-13 run to pull away for the 78-55 victory. The Lady Cougars went just 3-for-18 from the field over the final 13 minutes. "We played well the first 20 minutes,” said MVNU coach Steve Gregory. "The second 20 minutes wasn’t as strong, but (Cedarville) deserves a lot of the credit for that. They are a tremendous team very worthy of their No. 3 national ranking. They were very good defensively and got on a run early in the second half that we had a difficult time responding to.” "Added to all the misfires, we did not get a lot of offensive rebounds and lacked stick-back opportunities,” Gregory added. "Lastly, we didn’t have the ‘X’ factor step up tonight. We got offensive production from Amanda and Sierra along with Kelli stepping up big and knocking down some early treys. However, we didn’t get a lot of other offense and that was the big difference tonight.” Fletcher (right) finished with 18 points to lead the Lady Cougars, while Himes posted a double-double of 14 points and 12 rebounds. Pollock added nine points, and Johnson finished with seven points and three assists. MVNU shot just 28.1 percent from the field for the game (18-for-64), 32.1 percent from three-point range (9-for-28), and 76.9 percent from the free throw line (10-for-13). Siemon led a balanced attack for Cedarville with 21 points and nine rebounds, while Hurley added 14 points with four treys. Lemon and Miller both added 12 points apiece with Lemon grabbing 10 rebounds to go with six assists and Miller snaring nine boards. The Lady Jackets shot 41 percent from the field (25-for-61), 33.3 percent from three-point land (7-for-21), and 87.5 percent from the free throw line (21-for-24). Cedarville also had a commanding 51-33 rebounding advantage. The Lady Cougars, who had their season-high seven-game winning streak snapped, will not have much time to dwell on the defeat as MVNU will host No. 7 Shawnee State University on Monday at 6:00 p.m. in a rescheduled American Mideast Conference game that had originally been slated for February 9th. "We’ve got to have a short memory about this game tonight and turn all of our focus to playing a very good Shawnee State team on Monday at home,” said Gregory.

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