Jan. 24, 2011

Box Score

By Dan Ryan
B-CUAthletics.com

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The 9-1 start was promising. The rest of Bethune-Cookman's 56-42 loss to Howard at the Ocean Center was the Monday malaise the Lady Wildcats have endured in Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference play this season.

Saadia Doyle scored 27 points as the Lady Bison (6-14 overall, 3-14) prevented B-CU (9-9,3-4) from posting its first weekend sweep and establish momentum after a huge win over first-place Hampton Saturday.

B-CU is 3-1 on Saturdays (3-0 in 2011) and 0-3 on Mondays so far in MEAC play.

 “Consistency has been a problem,” said B-CU coach Vanessa Blair. “We always split and can't get two wins in a row.”

 The Lady Wildcats scored the game's first six points and took a 9-1 lead on Jasmine Elum's three-pointer with 17 minutes remaining in the opening half. Doyle then almost single-handedly pushed Howard into the lead, as the MEAC's second-leading scorer gave the Lady Bison a 12-9 advantage.

Howard never trailed again. While Doyle flourished, B-CU's offense never got in a shooting rhythm and gave up 20 turnovers, many on shot clock violations.

“There was a lot of miscommunication and standing around on offense. No one was ready to take a shot,” Blair said. “We made Doyle MEAC player of the week; our defense on her was horrible.”

B-CU trailed 30-21 at halftime and managed just a Jasmine Daniels 3-pointer in the opening eight minutes of the second half. Howard's biggest lead came on a Tamoria Holmes (16 points) jumper that made it 46-24 with 10:42 left.

Daniels found her shooting touch late and helped B-CU get the lead down to 12 twice in the final three minutes, but that's as close as the Wildcats could come. Daniels led B-CU with 12 points, while Elum finished with 9. Cleniece Roberts had 8 points on 4-6 shooting and Amanda Hairston had a team-high 8 rebounds.

B-CU travels to South Carolina State for a 2 p.m. game Saturday.