JONESBORO (11/11/08) ? Junior guard Ebonie Jefferson scored
a game-high 18 points to lead the Arkansas State women's basketball team to a
74-65 victory over Henderson State in an exhibition game at the Convocation
Center Tuesday night.
The Red Wolves
completed their exhibition season 2-0, also knocking off Arkansas-Monticello
72-57 on Nov. 1. ASU fell behind 11-9 early, but went on a 7-0 run to
take a 16-11 advantage with 9:19 left in the opening half and held the lead the
remainder of the game. Arkansas State took a 38-25 halftime lead before
building its largest advantage of the game at 54-40 with 13:23 left in the
contest.
The Lady Reddies were able to cut the Red Wolves lead to
69-62 with 3:33 remaining, but couldn't get any closer. The Red Wolves extended
their lead back to double figures, 73-62, over the next two minutes before
going on to the nine-point victory.
ASU posted 10 blocks and 12 steals, but was hurt by 27
turnovers. The Red Wolves slightly improved their field-goal percentage in the
second half to 34.3 percent and finished with an overall shooting percentage of
.333. ASU connected on just one of 18 three-point attempts and shot 69 percent
from the charity stripe.
“The good in each half is what we have to keep building on,”
said ASU Head Coach
Brian Boyer. “If we combine the defense of the first half with the
offense of the second half, it was pretty good.”
Henderson State recorded 19 steals and shot 37 percent from
the floor, but was outrebounded 55-44 by ASU. The Red Wolves collected 23
offensive rebounds and posted 15 second-chance points.
Jefferson was the only ASU player
to reach double figures in the scoring column, but Lyndsay Shlup, Shay Scott,
Caroline Starr and Elyseia Dunn all added at least eight points each.
Jazmine Taylor pulled down a game-high seven rebounds and blocked a game-high
three shots. Shlup, who scored all of her nine points from the free throw
line, tallied a team-high four steals.
“Ebonie goes 7-for-10 with four offensive rebound and 18
points. That's a pretty good stat line,” said Boyer. “Not only
statistically, but she gives us such good energy out there. She has
become very, very dependable. Defensively she always does the right
thing, offensively she is always in attack mode.”
Henderson State had two players score in double figures, led
by Chanlee Bottoms with 12 points. The Lady Reddies also got 10 points
from Riana Miller.
ASU opens its regular season with a pair of home games,
starting with a Nov. 14 matchup against Creighton at 7:05 p.m. The Red
Wolves will host Northern Arizona Nov. 16 at 2:05 p.m.
