MOC women maul Newport News

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on January 29, 2004 2:00 PM

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MOUNT OLIVE -- The Mount Olive College women's basketball team hadn't posted a winning record against non-conference opposition in Wendy Lawrence's head coaching tenure until Wednesday evening.

The Lady Trojans concluded the non-conference portion of their schedule 5-3 with a 75-42 thrashing of NCAA Division III member Newport News Apprentice School. Latoria Harvey notched her 11th double-double (10 points, 10 rebounds) of the season, while senior guard Ladora Charles pumped in 19 points on 8-of-9 shooting.

"We needed this," Lawrence said.

Indeed.

The Trojans' confidence has been a bit shattered during the last month. Before the Apprentice victory, they had notched just one win, and lost two home contests by a combined three points. A team full of talent, but mixed with youth and inexperience, just couldn't seem to find the winning formula.

They might have rediscovered the missing ingredient against Apprentice. The Trojans played hard-nosed defense for 40 minutes and wore down a Builders squad which brought just eight players to College Hall.

Mount Olive (7-8) held Apprentice to its second-lowest offensive output of the season and 30 percent shooting from the floor. The Builders also committed 34 turnovers, which led to 31 Trojan points.

"We really stayed on them on defense, ran the floor and wore them down a little bit on defense," Lawrence said. "We took a little bit of their intensity away, slowed them down and turned it into a halfcourt game. I felt we could match up better with them.

"They didn't have as much depth and weren't able to interchange as much as we did tonight. I felt even when we had players coming off the bench, they came in with a lot of intensity and a lot of enthusiasm. It helped us keep that momentum going."

The Trojan bench contributed 36 points, mainly from Charles, who led the team in scoring for the ninth time this season. Charles dished out five assists, collected six steals and grabbed four rebounds. Six-foot sophomore Amber Hill added a career-best eight points in 17 minutes of play. Darlisha Stanfield, Shenetta Moye, Melanie Cobb and Anita Rogers each contributed two or more points.

Apprentice (9-9) opened the game in a matchup 2-3 zone and trailed 9-6 at the 15-minute, 4-second mark. Then the Builders, who struggled to keep the Trojans off the offensive glass, switched to a man-to-man defense. Mount Olive's offense caught fire at that point.

Leading 11-10, the Trojans uncorked a 17-3 run and grabbed control of the game.

The Builders never threatened until the second half. Whitney Lassiter's layup capped an 8-0 run as they trimmed the deficit to 52-34. But Charles hit back-to-back 3-pointers as Mount Olive outscored Apprentice 23-8 in the final 16 minutes of play.

"Tonight we knew we had to come out and get (defensive) stops to get what we wanted," said Lawrence. "We had to go back to the basics on defense.

"For morale and confidence, we needed to play well tonight and together as a team. Everybody played unselfish and looked more for open people tonight."

Mount Oilve had 19 assists as a team. LeAnn Simms complemented Charles' effort with four assists. Eight other players recorded at least one assist during their stint on the court.

The Trojans averaged one point per possession in the opening half. They shot 70 percent or better from the free throw line for the second consecutive game and the fifth time this season. They converted 50 percent of their 3-point shots, which eclisped their season best of 46.1 percent (6-of-13) against Limestone on Jan. 6.

"Hopefully, this is going to give us a lift going into Friday night's game with Anderson," Lawrence said.

Tip-off is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.

MOUNT OLIVE (75)

Latoria Harvey 5 0 0-1 10, Teneal Boone 5 0 1-1 11, LeAnn Simms 2 0 0-0 4, Tanika Hudgins 2 1 2-2 9, Brandy Smith 0 1 2-2 5, Ladora Charles 5 3 0-0 19, Darlisha Stanfield 1 0 0-0 2, Shenetta Moye 0 1 0-0 3, Melanie Cobb 0 0 2-4 2, Tilah Worthy 0 0 0-0 0, Anita Rogers 1 0 0-0 2, Amber Hill 3 0 2-2 8.

N.N. APPRENTICE (42)

Anita Allen 9 0 3-8 21, Mary Louden 1 1 3-5 8, Amy Patterson 2 0 0-0 4, Johnson 0 0 2-2 2, Lassiter 2 0 0-0 4, Scott 0 1 0-0 3, Dayna Twyne 0 0 0-0 0, Vanessa Byrd 0 0 0-0 0, Brooke Collins 0 0 0-0 0.

Halftime -- Mount Olive 41, Apprentice 22. Three-point baskets -- Mount Olive 6-12 (Simms 0-2, Hudgins 1-2, Smith 1-2, Charles 3-4, Moye 1-1, Worthy 0-1); Apprentice 2-6 (Louden 1-1, Patterson 0-2, Johnson 0-1, Scott 1-2). Rebounds -- Mount Olive 47 (Harvey 10), Apprentice 32 (Allen 11). Assists -- Mount Olive 19 (Charles 5), Apprentice 5 (Johnson 3). Turnovers -- Mount Olive 30, Apprentice 34. Blocked shots -- Mount Olive 3, Apprentice 2. Steals -- Mount Olive 23 (Charles 6), Apprentice 15 (Patterson, Lassiter 4).