Feb. 1, 2011
Box Score
By Dan Ryan
B-CUAthletics.com
DURHAM, N.C. - Three straight Monday losses brought out talk of a "Monday curse" for the Bethune-Cookman women's basketball team. The Lady Wildcats broke that curse and - forgive the Bull Durham reference - didn't need items like the head of a live rooster to beat North Carolina Central 64-53 at McDougal-McLendon Gym.
Sarah Bolden scored a career-high 22 points as Bethune-Cookman (11-9) finally followed a Saturday victory with a Monday triumph for the first time in four weekends "
It's tough to win the Saturday and turn around and lose the Monday game three straight weekends," said B-CU coach Vanessa Blair. "We may be down in numbers, but that's the hand we've been dealt."
The exorcism simply involved B-CU controlling the rebounding, though NCCU(2-19) closed the Lady Wildcats' significant advantage down to 48-45 with its second half-run. B-CU had 15 offensive boards in the first half.
"Just studying the stats, we saw that with North Carolina Central's shooting percentage, there were a lot of rebounds to be had," We wanted to get the ball inside."
That meant getting the ball to Bolden, who took over the game at times. After scoring just two points against South Carolina State, the senior was 10-19 from the field and was one rebound shy of a double-double while also registering four steals.
"We've been on Sarah to come out and give a big game," Blair said. "She hasn't been offensive minded, but we told her `You have to come get it done tonight.' Tonight was her night."
Bolden and Jasmine Daniels (10 points) combined to score 12 of B-CU's final 14 points after NCCU cut a 17-point Lady Wildcat lead to six points three times in the final five minutes.
"Sarah put the team on her back," Blair said.
Amanda Hairston double-doubled with 14 points and 10 rebounds while Jasmine Elum added 10. Daniels' stat line included seven rebounds and seven assists.
B-CU scored the final ten points of the opening half to take a 34-24 halftime lead and built the lead to 48-31 on an Elum basket with 10:47 left. NCCU opened up an early 11-5 lead but B-CU forced turnovers to turn momentum around and led 21-14 on a Kiara Redmon jumper with 9:46 to play.
B-CU hosts Coppin State Saturday.
