Boone paces Mount Olive women

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on March 3, 2004 1:56 PM

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MOUNT OLIVE -- Mount Olive women's basketball coach Wendy Lawrence rarely gets emotional on the sideline or in the locker room. She calmly goes over the game plan and encourages each player to perform at their highest level.

Lawrence added a little story before Tuesday evening's tip-off against Pfeiffer University in the 2004 NCAA Division II Carolinas-Virginia Athletic Conference Tournament. She compared this year's Trojans to a wounded tiger and challenged the team not to succumb to another disappointing defeat.

Teneal Boone identified with that tiger. Displeased with her performance in Sunday's regular-season finale against Coker (S.C.) College, Boone refused to crawl into seclusion and lick her injuries.

Boone, a 6-foot-1 sophomore from Jacksonville, collected her third double-double (18 points, 13 rebounds) against Pfeiffer this season as the Trojans prevailed 83-52 at College Hall. Mount Olive, the No. 8 seed, travels to regular-season champion and archrival Barton College today.

Pfeiffer, the reigning CVAC Tournament champ, finished its campaign 10-18.

"Coach said we're a wounded tiger," a grinning Boone said. "We can't just sit down, lick our wounds and die. We have to fight hard. I had to step up because this is an important game.

"We needed this. Everybody was getting down because we were losing and it was tournament time. All the tournament games are important."

The Trojans played with intensity, crashed the boards, scrambled for loose balls and dominated nearly every statistical category in the game. It was a complete turnaround for a team that had lost four straight games and won just three times in nearly a month.

Falcon point guard Bershalyn Bailey outscored Mount Olive 5-2 in the early stages of the game. The Trojans countered with their athleticism and quickness, tieing the game at 7-7 on Tanika Hudgins' 3-pointer.

After a turnover, Boone hit the first of nine field goals on an assist from Hudgins. That started a whopping 28-6 run which included numerous second-chance baskets and 13 points off Pfeiffer turnovers. Boone finished the half with eight points, five rebounds and one blocked shot in 13 minutes of action.

The Trojans led 35-13 at intermission.

"She loves playing us, I guess," Pfeiffer coach Rob Brafford said of Boone. "Maybe we make her look like an All-American, I don't know. She's just so athletic and we're not athletic. It really takes a toll on us.

"We didn't have the quickness. Emily (Goad), with the sprained ankle, struggled to keep up with someone that quick. They just absolutely crushed us."

Mount Olive continued its dominating inside presence in the second half. Boone and Latoria Harvey tallied 28 of the Trojans' 46 points in the paint and combined for 19 rebounds.

The Trojans out-rebounded the Falcons 53-23, including 34-18 on the defensive end. Lawrence's team averaged a little more than one point on 80 possessions. Nine players scored at least two or more points and Mount Olive notched 20 assists as a team.

"We did get it inside tonight and they took it up strong," Lawrence said. "We also talked about taking it to the basket and I thought our guards did a good job not settling for 3-pointers, which we had been doing in the past few games.

"We really took it at them hard tonight."

Boone led five players in double figures as the Trojans won a CVAC postseason contest for the second straight year. Shenetta Moye chipped in a career-high 12 points. Tanika Hudgins provided 11 points and a career-best seven assists. Harvey and Charles each finished with 10 points.

The Trojans picked up their 11th win, the most since posting a 14-13 record in 1996-97 -- the CVAC's first year of competition. Lawrence is now 2-2 all-time in the post-