Prichard tallies 19 points in Trojans' loss

By News-Argus Staff
Published in Sports on December 1, 2006 1:48 PM

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MOUNT OLIVE -- Tomeka Prichard scored 13 of her game-high 19 points in the second half for Mount Olive, but it wasn't enough as the Trojans fell to St. Andrews 58-53 in Carolinas-Virginia Athletics Conference women's basketball Thursday at Kornegay Arena.

Danielle Norman scored 15 points for St. Andrews and drew a charging foul late in the game to thwart a Trojan rally.

"I think we've got a lot of growing to do," Mount Olive coach Wendy Lee said. "We're in a transitional period. We played without two of our leading scorers tonight.

"We tried to step up and pick up the slack from where those two normally are for us. I thought Tomeka Prichard and Keona Corley tried to fill their shoes and get points for us. We struggled to find an offense early and to find people to score for us."

Mount Olive (1-3 overall, 0-2 CVAC) jumped out to a 6-0 lead and held St. Andrews scoreless for more than four minutes into the contest, but the Knights rallied for six unanswered points to tie the game. Keona Corley's basket started another six-point run for the Trojans and Prichard's layup with 3:18 remaining matched Mount Olive's biggest advantage at 24-18. St. Andrews got as close as three points before the Trojans went into the locker room with a 28-23 halftime lead.

St. Andrews (4-1, 2-0) opened the second half with an 8-0 run as April Johnson's basket with 18:14 gave the Knights their first lead of the game. Prichard then scored eight points in Mount Olive's 10-2 run as her three-pointer gave the Trojans a 38-33 lead with 14:28 remaining.

Prichard has hit at least one three-point field goal in 20 of her last 21 games.

"(Prichard) was motivated to play well," Lee said. "She just found her shot in the second-half and she hit some key baskets for us."

The lead changed hands 11 times in the second half before Ashley Mitchell's basket with 6:16 remaining put St. Andrews on top for good 51-50. Both teams were limited to one field goal the rest of the way. Trailing 57-53 with eight seconds left in the game, the Trojans thought they had cut the lead to two when Corley drove the lane, but Norman drew the charge and the basket was disallowed.

Turnovers were a key for both teams, as Mount Olive scored 20 points off of 27 St. Andrews turnovers, while the Knights turned 21 Trojan turnovers into 21 points.

Corley finished with 11 points for Mount Olive, while Alisa Jones and Jill Oaks shared team-high honors with seven rebounds each.

Marquita Prichard, older sister of Tomeka, narrowly missed a double-double for St. Andrews with nine points and a game-high 10 rebounds off the bench.

"Our boxing out was very poor and allowed a lot of second shots," Lee said. "They got a lot of second shots and got to the free-throw line and I think that was probably the difference in the game.

"We have to regroup and learn from out mistakes."

Mount Olive returns to action Saturday as the Trojans play host to Limestone in a CVAC contest. Tip-off is 2 p.m. at Kornegay Arena. St. Andrews entertains Erskine Saturday at 2 p.m. in CVAC action.

-- Mount Olive College contributed to this report.

St. Andrews (4-1, 2-0)

Danielle Norman 4 0 7-8 15, April Johnson 3 0 1-2 7, Erika Thompson 2 0 3-3 7, Ashley Mitchell 2 1 0-0 7, Karen Foggie 1 0 0-2 2, April Henderson 0 0 0-0, Diana Martinez 2 0 0-0 4, Adrian White 0 0 0-0, Marquita Prichard 4 0 1-5 9, Jessy Perkins 3 0 1-2 7. TOTALS -- 21 1 13-22 58.

Mount Olive (1-3, 0-2)

Tomeka Prichard 7 1 2-3 19, Alisa Jones 2 0 0-2 4, Sierra Medeiros 3 0 1-5 7, Keona Corley 4 0 3-4 11, Keshaun Mozee 1 0 3-4 5, Samone Bland 0 0 0-0, Jill Oaks 0 1 0-0 3, Tilah Worthy 1 0 2-3 4, Brittney Robich 0 0 0-0. TOTALS -- 18 2 11-21 53.

Halftime -- Mount Olive 28-23. Three-point goals -- SA 1-8 (Thompson 0-5, Mitchell 1-2, Foggie 0-1), MOC 2-12 (Prichard 1-5, Corley 0-1, Oaks 1-4, Worthy 0-1, Robich 0-1). Rebounds -- SA 47 (Prichard 10), MOC 30 (Jones, Oaks 7). Assists -- SA 17 (Thompson 5), MOC (Medeiros, Corley, Mozee, Worthy 2). Turnovers -- SA 27, MOC 21. Blocked shots -- SA 2, MOC 1. Steals -- SA 10 (Norman 3), MOC 12 (Prichard 3).