UNCG women’s basketball defeats St. Paul’s, 52-40 in exhibition action

GREENSBORO, NC – The UNC Greensboro women’s basketball team opened the 2007-08 season with a 52-40 exhibition win over St. Paul’s on Friday evening in Fleming Gym.

“We did get a win but we definitely have some things to work on,” said UNCG head coach Lynne Agee. “We had a very poor rebounding night with the exception of Jasmine Dixon, who did a great job for us. We needed everyone to step up and rebound and we just didn’t get that out of everyone tonight but I will say that we did see some good things out there, especially out of our younger players.”

UNCG was led by Dixon who tallied nine points on 3-of-5 shooting from the floor. The Reston, VA native also led UNCG on the boards and pulled down 16 rebounds in the victory. Monique Floyd was UNCG’s next leading scorer with eight points.

St. Paul’s had two players in double figures and was led by Katrina Wright who led all scorers with 13 points, while teammate Gabrielle Johnson contributed 10 points in the loss. Johnson and Alicia Brown also added nine rebounds to lead the Tigers.

Both teams started the game slow but the Spartans had an early 6-0 lead after holding the Tigers scoreless through the first four minutes of the game. St. Paul’s was able to get a three-pointer from Alicia Brown to cut into the UNCG lead at the 15:35 mark and even managed to tie the game at 6-6 with 14:32 remaining in the first half.

The Spartans used back-to-back buckets from Gini Grimsley to pull ahead and points from freshman Floyd put UNCG back out in front. With the help of several Tiger miscues and points from Dixon and Floyd the Spartans pushed their lead to 21-10 with just over five minutes remaining.

UNCG took a 29-14 lead into the break after closing the half with an 8-2 run. The Spartans held the Tigers to a 23.8 shooting percentage in the first half while shooting 40.7 percent from the floor on 11-27 shooting.

In the second half the Spartans were able to extend their lead to as much as 25 points at the 12:30 mark of the second stanza but the Tigers began to battle back late in the half.

St. Paul’s went on an 11-1 run over a four minute span to cut the UNCG lead to 48-40 with 1:35 left in the game. The Spartans were able to withstand the late rally and used several steals and a three-pointer from Kemena Brooks in the final seconds to seal the victory.

The Spartans open the 2007-07 regular season on Nov. 11 when they head to Raleigh, NC to take on instate rival, North Carolina State. Tip off is set for 2 pm in Reynolds Coliseum.

AGATE
UNCG 52, ST. PAUL'S 40

ST. PAUL'S: WRIGHT,Katrina 5-16 3-5 13; JOHNSON,Gabrielle 4-12 2-4 10; COOK,Juantale 2-10 2-4 6; ELLIS,Tatiana 1-9 2-2 4; BROWN,Alicia 1-8 0-0 3; RAINEY,Keneil 1-4 0-0 2; AGODO,Dela 1-1 0-0 2; GRAVES,Shayln 0-2 0-0 0; CHRISTIAN,Brittany 0-1 0-0 0; PARKER,Saleathia 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 15-63 9-15 40.

UNCG: DIXON,Jasmine 3-5 3-8 9; FLOYD,Monique 3-5 2-2 8; MULLINS,Ashley 3-9 0-0 7;BROOKS,Kemena 2-9 2-4 7; GRIMSLEY,Gini 3-11 1-3 7; SMITH,Kendra 3-5 0-0 6;GIRSTAUTAITE,Agne 1-3 2-5 4; WADELINGTO,Sharniece 0-2 4-6 4; BANNER,TaShama 0-0 0-0 0; HYSON,Lakiah 0-0 0-2 0; CHAMBERLAIN,Meghan 0-0 0-0 0; LING,Ashley 0-5 0-0 0. Totals 18-54 14-30 52.

Halftime Score UNCG 29, 14 3-point goals--St. Paul's 1-14 (BROWN,Alicia 1-2; COOK,Juantale 0-5;ELLIS,Tatiana 0-4; WRIGHT,Katrina 0-3), UNCG 2-16 (BROOKS,Kemena 1-5;MULLINS,Ashley 1-3; GRIMSLEY,Gini 0-5; LING,Ashley 0-2; DIXON,Jasmine 0-1).Fouled out--St. Paul's-None, UNCG-None. Rebounds--St. Paul's 50\(JOHNSON,Gabrielle 9; BROWN,Alicia 9), UNCG 50 (DIXON,Jasmine 16).Assists--St. Paul's 7 (COOK,Juantale 2; WRIGHT,Katrina 2), UNCG 11(LING,Ashley 4). Total fouls--St. Paul's 23, UNCG 15. Technical fouls--St.Paul's-None, UNCG-None. A-247

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