BUIES CREEK, NC - UNCG scored the first eight points of the second half to complete a 12-0 run, breaking open a tight game and spoiling Campbell’s home opener, 84-68, at Carter Gym on Friday night.
Senior guard Jasmine Byrd, a native of Dumfries, VA, recorded her second consecutive 20-point game and the 10th of her career with 24 points to lead UNCG. She had 27 points in the season-opening win over UNC Wilmington last Sunday and now sits at 829 points for her career in her quest to become the 21st player in school history to record 1,000 points.
Kristen Boone and Irene Otamiri chipped in 17 and 14 points, respectively. Otamiri, a senior from Lund, Sweden, also had eight rebounds, six assists and five steals on the night.
Campbell was led by Letitia Dickson’s 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field. Marlena Murphy chipped in a career-high 14 points and eight rebounds.
UNCG, which won for the 11th time in 12 meetings and remained perfect all-time in Campbell’s Carter Gym at 5-0, raised its record to 2-0 for the first time since the start of the 2000-01 campaign. The Spartans went on to finish that year with a 22-8 record on their way to the Southern Conference title game.
The Spartans shot 50.8 percent from the floor, including 61 percent in the first half, and had a sizeable advantage in points off turnovers for the second straight game. UNCG held a 26-14 advantage in that statistical category, taking advantage of 22 Lady Camel miscues.
It was just the sixth loss for Campbell (0-2) in a home-opener in the history of Carter Gym. The Lady Camels are 30-6 all-time in home openers at Carter, but have lost each of the last four seasons.
“We came into Campbell expecting a tough game and despite the score we got that,’ said UNCG coach Lynne Agee, who picked up her 495th win as head coach of the Spartans and the 541st of her career. “They were aggressive and played physically with us. We battled through some foul trouble. Overall, though, I thought we played well on the road.
“In the scoring column, we got another big game from Jasmine and got a solid performance from Irene across the board. She scored on good decisions, she rebounded and she defended. I think we showed a real balanced attack tonight, which we’ve said will be the key to our season.”
The first half was a series of runs by both teams. UNCG looked like was ready to run away with it midway through the first half. The Spartans ran off nine straight points midway through the first half to open up a 26-17 lead with 9:04 to play. Boone, a junior from Upper Marlboro, MD, got the run started when she hit a pair of free throws, then stole the ball for an easy lay-up in UNCG’s half-court pressure. But following a Lady Camel time out, Campbell reeled off seven straight, capped off by Kelly Hufstedler’s jumper, to close back to within two.
Campbell’s only lead of the first half came just 1:42 into the game, 5-2, but the Spartans couldn’t quite seem to shake the Lady Camels at the outset. UNCG started to get some separation, however, just before the intermission. A 9-2 run, capped by Jasmine Dixon’s conventional three-point play, gave UNCG a 41-33 lead with a little over a minute to go in the half.
Campbell scored six in a row, but UNCG again responded with the final four points of the half, the last two coming on a steal and lay-up by Jasmine Byrd just before time expired to give the Spartans a 45-37 halftime lead.
But UNCG ran off the first eight points of the second half and stretched the lead out to as much as 18 in the early minutes of the half. Campbell cut the margin a couple of times after that, but never got it back to single-digits despite the fact that the Spartans went nearly four minutes without a field goal midway through the second half.
AGATE
UNC GREENSBORO 84, CAMPBELL 68
UNC GREENSBORO (2-0)
Byrd, Jasmine 8-16 6-6 24; Boone, Kristen 5-7 7-8 17; Otamiri,
Irene 7-12 0-1 14; Chamberlain, Meghan 3-7 2-4 8; Dixon, Jasmine
1-1 3-3 5; Latham, Kaleah 2-3 0-1 5; Frazier, Brittany 2-5 1-2 5;
Brooks, Kemena 1-5 1-2 4; Grimsley, Gini 1-2 0-0 2; Girstautaite,
Agne 0-0 0-0 0; Mullins, Ashley 0-0 0-0 0; Ling, Ashley 0-1 0-0 0.
Totals 30-59 20-27 84.
CAMPBELL (0-2)
DICKSON, Letitia 7-11 2-2 19; MURPHY, Marlena 4-7 6-8 14; RIELEY,
Adrienne 4-8 4-5 12; OLIVER, Taylor 1-6 6-8 8; BLACKWELL, Octavia
2-7 3-4 7; BELL, Gara 2-3 0-1 4; GRAHAM, Kristin 1-1 0-0 2;
HUFSTEDLER, Kelly 1-2 0-0 2; RICH, Maggie 0-4 0-0 0; SMITHBERGER,
Lindsay 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 22-50 21-28 68.
Halftime: UNC Greensboro 45-37. 3-point goals--UNC Greensboro 4-13 (Byrd, Jasmine 2-7; Latham, Kaleah 1-2; Brooks, Kemena 1-2; Otamiri, Irene 0-1; Boone, Kristen 0-1), Campbell 3-10 (DICKSON, Letitia 3-4; OLIVER, Taylor 0-3; RICH, Maggie 0-3). Fouled out--UNC Greensboro-None, Campbell-DICKSON, Letitia. Rebounds—UNC Greensboro 37 (Otamiri, Irene 8), Campbell 31 (MURPHY, Marlena 8). Assists--UNC Greensboro 20 (Otamiri, Irene 6), Campbell 16 (BLACKWELL, Octavia 6). Total fouls--UNC Greensboro 26, Campbell 23. Technical fouls--UNC Greensboro-None, Campbell-None. A-757
- UNCG -