December 1, 2010

BALTIMORE – UNCG got a double-double from Amanda Leigh and led by as many as 31 points as it cruised to a 66-47 road win over Morgan State on Wednesday.

Leigh had 15 points, all on 3-pointers, and a career-high-matching 10 rebounds, both game highs, for her second career double-double. Monique Floyd was also in double figures for the Spartans (2-4) with 11 points, while Jazz Weaver had a big game with a career-high six assists in just 16 minutes.

Brittany Dodson led Morgan State (4-3) with 15 points of her own to share game-high honors with Leigh. Whitney Southerland had 10 for the Lady Bears.

"We're excited about tonight's performance," UNCG coach Lynne Agee said. "I just told the team that we played a very good pace for us. We wanted to drive the ball and attack the basket and really push it in transition. I thought we had a good tempo. I thought our defense was pretty solid. The last eight or 10 minutes, we slowed down a little bit, we lost some intensity when we got a big lead, but overall I thought we really handled the pace of the game and set it at our tempo, which pleased me."

UNCG shot a season-best 48.1 percent from the floor (26-for-54), including a 50 percent showing in the second half (13-for-26). The Spartans trailed just once in the contest at 5-3 and led by at least 16 for the duration of the second half.

Leigh, who hit a 3-pointer for UNCG's first basket, had 12 points in the first half alone, as she was 4-for-5 from beyond the arc at the break. She finished 5-for-9 from downtown, marking her second straight game with five 3s.

Morgan State's Erin Hawkins hit a 3-pointer with 9:58 left in the opening frame to draw the Lady Bears within two at 14-12, but UNCG would hold MSU without a field goal for the next 4:33 to open up a 10-point lead.

After taking a 32-16 lead into halftime, UNCG exploded out of the locker room on a 19-4 run to open up a 31-point advantage at 51-20 with 12:06 to play. Leigh started the scoring with a 3-pointer, and five other players contributed to the run.

Morgan State would tighten things up from there on out, outscoring UNCG 26-13 over the next 11 minutes to get the margin under 20 with less than a minute to play. Southerland had eight of her points in the spurt, while Dodson had seven.

UNCG dominated the glass, outrebounding the Lady Bears 49-27. The Spartans took advantage of 15 offensive rebounds for 20 second-chance points.

Morgan State forced 27 UNCG turnovers, but could convert them into only 13 points. The Spartans forced 17 Lady Bear turnovers and made them count, scoring 21 points off of them.

The 19-point win was UNCG's biggest since an 83-64 victory over Wofford in the first round of the Southern Conference Championship on March 5, 2009.

The Spartans return to action on Tuesday, Dec. 7, when they host backyard rival High Point at Fleming Gym at 7 p.m.

AGATE
UNCG 66, MORGAN STATE 47

UNCG (2-4)
Amanda Leigh 5-10 0-0 15; Monique Floyd 5-8 1-2 11; Janae' Stevenson 4-7 1-2 9; Breonna Patterson 3-4 0-0 6; Nneka Awuruonye 3-5 0-2 6; Kendra Smith 2-6 2-2 6; Dayshaun Richbow 0-2 4-5 4; Brey Dorsett 1-2 0-0 3; Jazz Weaver 1-5 0-0 2; Amy Clapper 1-2 0-0 2; Sidnei Harmon 1-1 0-0 2; Colleen Nosovitch 0-2 0-0 0; Sarah Folwell 0-0 0-0 0; Agneta Morkunaite 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-54 8-13 66.

MORGAN STATE (4-3)
DODSON,Brittany 6-11 1-2 15; SOUTHERLAND,Whitney 4-9 0-0 10; DAVIS,Theresa 4-13 0-0 8; HAWKINS,Erin 2-8 0-0 6; MATHIS,DeKeisha 2-5 0-0 5; NOEL,Brittany 1-2 0-0 2; DAVIS,Moneshia 0-7 1-3 1; BRATTON,MyQueisha 0-3 0-0 0; GOODMAN,Moriah 0-0 0-0 0; MANNING,Dakia 0-2 0-0 0; THOMAS,Mahala 0-3 0-0 0; COARDES,Briana 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 19-63 2-5 47.

UNCG..........................   32   34  -   66
Morgan State..................   16   31  -   47

3-point goals--UNCG 6-15 (Amanda Leigh 5-9; Brey Dorsett 1-1; Kendra Smith 0-2; Dayshaun Richbow 0-1; Jazz Weaver 0-1; Monique Floyd 0-1), Morgan State 7-21 (SOUTHERLAND,Whitney 2-5; HAWKINS,Erin 2-6; DODSON,Brittany 2-2; MATHIS,DeKeisha 1-3; BRATTON,MyQueisha 0-2; DAVIS,Moneshia 0-2; NOEL,Brittany 0-1). Fouled out--UNCG-None, Morgan State-None. Rebounds—UNCG 49 (Amanda Leigh 10), Morgan State 27 (DAVIS,Theresa 9). Assists--UNCG 14 (Jazz Weaver 6), Morgan State 12 (DAVIS,Moneshia 3; SOUTHERLAND,Whitney 3; HAWKINS,Erin 3). Total fouls--UNCG 13, Morgan State 11. Technical fouls--UNCG-None, Morgan State-None. A-213

- UNCG -