February 2, 2005
BOX SCORE
ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Longwood University dropped a 66-50 women’s college basketball decision to host UNC Asheville Wednesday evening at the Justice Center in Asheville, N.C. The Lancers, who are now 10-10 on the season, were led by junior forward Ashley Mason/Virginia Beach (Princess Anne) who finished with a double-double of 12 points and 11 rebounds. She also added three blocks, two assists and one steal. Ashton Barton and Velinda Vancannon, who scored 15 and 13 points, respectively, led the Bulldogs, who improved to 11-7 on the season. LU will return to action when they travel to Texas for a first-time meeting with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Saturday, February 5 at 4:00 p.m.
Longwood came out of the gates strong, building a 20-6 lead at the 11:03 mark of the first half. Junior guard Jessica Wilkerson/Roanoke (Northside) scored seven out of LU’s 20 points, while senior forward/center Catherine Dunn/Aberdeen, N.J. (St. John’s Vianney) capped off the impressive start converting a three-point play.
Over the next four minutes UNC Asheville went on a 15-0 run to pull ahead of the Lancers, 21-20. Barton started off the run for the Bulldogs draining a three-pointer at the 9:54 mark. Vuncannon then hit two free throws, followed by a layup by Stacy Shepard, back-to-back three-pointers by Barton and Vancannon, and was closed out on a layup by Kristal Hood.
Meldere put a stop to UNCA’s hot streak when she hit a jumper with 6:40 remaining in the first half, but five-straight points by Hood gave the Bulldogs its largest lead of the half at 26-22. The Lancers cut the lead to two on a layup by freshman guard Keiva Small/Norview (Norfolk) and then tied it at 26-26 on a jumper by Meldere with 21 seconds left on the clock. Andrea Clapp of UNC Asheville hit a last second jumper to give the Bulldogs the two-point advantage at half.
After tying the game twice in the early minutes of the second half, the Lancers finally took back the lead at 37-36 on a three-pointer by Small. A bucket by Clapp tipped the lead back to UNCA, but LU answered with a bucket by Wilkerson, who was fouled on the play. She converted her free throw to give the Lancers a slight two-point edge, 40-38.
The Bulldogs scored 18 out of the games next 23 points to give UNCA an 11-point lead at 56-45 with less than seven minutes remaining in the contest. Small hit one of two free throws to make it a ten-point contest, but UNC Asheville was to strong down the stretch and earned the 16-point victory.
Besides Ashley Mason, the Lancers were led by Wilkerson who scored 10 points, dished out three assists, had three steals and grabbed two rebounds. Both Meldere and Small added eight points, while Dunn chipped in six points. LU finished the game shooting 32.8% (19-58) from the field, including 21.4% (3-14) on three-pointers, and connected on 75.0% (9-12) of its free throws.
Clapp who scored 12 points, had three rebounds and one assist also led UNC Asheville to victory. The Bulldogs finished the contest shooting 45.5% (25-55) from the field, including 42.9% (3-7) on three-pointers, and was 68.4% (13-19) at the charity stripe.
