December 17, 2005
BOX SCORE
FARMVILLE, Va. – Longwood University earned a 91-78 women’s basketball decision over visiting Morgan State University this evening at Willett Hall in Farmville. The win breaks a five-game losing skid and improves the Lancers record to 3-7, while the Lady Bears dropped to 0-6 on the season. Longwood was led by senior forward Amber Mason/Virginia Beach (Princess Anne) and freshman center Anna Steg/Fairfax (George C. Marshall). Mason finished with a career-high 28 points along with a game-high nine rebounds, while Steg scored a career-high 25 points and added eight rebounds, four assists, two steals and one block. LU will be back in action Tuesday, December 20 when the play at Georgia Tech. Game time is slated for 7:00 p.m.
Morgan State controlled the early minutes of game, building an 11-7 lead on a jumper by Latricia Jones at the 15:42 mark. Longwood used a 12-2 spurt over the next two minutes to capture the lead at 19-13; a lead it would not relinquish. Junior guard Abbey Freese/West Liberty, Ohio (West Liberty-Salem) sparked the run for the Lancers, draining a three-pointer and hitting a jumper to give Longwood the lead.
The Lady Bears were able to get the score within one, 25-24, after back-to-back three-pointers by Dominisha Britton, but that is as close as they would get as the Lancers used a 10-2 run to build a nine-point advantage with 6:41 to play in the first stanza.
Morgan State cut the lead to five, 37-32, with 5:25 to play in half, but Longwood outscored MSU 19-6 over the final minutes to go into the locker room with its largest lead of the half at 56-38.
The Lancers pushed its lead to 20 quickly into the second half after a jumper and layup by Steg, but a 14-7 run by the Lady Bears sliced LU’s lead to 13 with 9:14 to play in the game. Britney Griffin capped off the run for Morgan State sinking two free throws and making a layup.
Steg sank two of her nine free throws on the night to increase Longwood’s lead to 15, 69-54, but Morgan State again fought back with a 13-7 spurt to cut the Lancers lead to single digits at 76-67 with 6:22 remaining in the contest.
The Lancers buckled down and scored the next 12 out of 17 points to gain some breathing room at 88-72 with 2:42 to play. Freese gave Longwood the 16-point advantage after she drained her fourth three-pointer of the night.
The Lady Bears were able to slice the lead to 10 with 38 seconds remaining, but could not get any closer as Longwood earned the 13-point victory.
Besides Mason and Steg, the Lancers were led by Freese and senior guard Jessica Wilkerson/Roanoke (Northside) who scored 14 and 10 points, respectively. Wilkerson also added a game-high seven assists. The Lancers finished the game shooting 44.4% (32-72) from the field, including 29.6% (8-27) on three-pointers, and was 65.5% (19-29) at the charity stripe.
Morgan State was led by Sarrissa Gaskins and Whitney Johnson who finished with 17 and 15 points, respectively. The Lady Bears finished the game shooting 37.7% (29-77) from the field, including 26.1% (6-23) on three-pointers, and was 60.9% (14-23) at the free throw line. MSU also held the 52-44 advantage in total rebounds.
