 |
HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. - Angela Healy and Jessie Slack had St. Andrews (N.C.) seeing double-double Tuesday night as Northern Kentucky University crushed the visiting Lady Knights, 100-50, in the Travel America Classic. Healy finished with 18 points, 11 rebounds and four blocked shots as NKU (7-1) reached 100 points for the first time since a 102-73 victory at Kentucky Wesleyan on Feb. 15, 2001. The 6-foot-1 senior center also recorded three steals and added four assists en route to earning all-tournament honors. Slack nearly pulled off a triple-double with 12 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists. The junior guard from Mt. Perry, Ohio, also earned a spot on the all-tournament team. “I think we clicked so well together tonight by executing and taking care of the ball,” said Slack, a transfer from East Carolina in her first year at NKU. “We were a little sloppy at the end of the game, but I thought we played well and we did everything a good team does to win a game.” NKU, in fact, placed six players in double figures for the second straight night. Cassie Brannen (17 points), Jessica Wendeln (14), Rachel Lantry (13) and Karen Brackman (12) joined Healy and Slack in double-figure scoring. The Norse held St. Andrews (1-6) to 27 percent shooting from the field. “I thought we played hard the whole game, and our goal was to try to play hard for 40 minutes,” NKU head coach Nancy Winstel said. “I thought that this was, from the beginning to the end, one of our best efforts this year. I was very pleased with our effort and execution. "Some of the mistakes that we made were because we were being aggressive. You can’t get upset with your kids when they’re doing that. I thought we had a good inside-outside attack. I was very pleased with our kids’ effort tonight.” Brackman buried a trio of 3-pointers in the first half as NKU built a 49-21 lead at the break. The Norse made six 3-pointers in the first half, and that helped open up the inside attack. “We took what the defense gave us and moved the ball. They came out and played a 2-3 zone, and I thought we took advantage of that because we made some shots,” Winstel said. “Karen Brackman making shots early was a big difference. You can’t make a shot if you don’t shoot a shot. With Karen, we’re trying to get her to take a shot and be aggressive.
“Tonight, she did just that and kind of opened things up for us early in the game, helping us force them into a man-to-man defense - which I don’t think they really wanted to play.” Lantry drained three shots from 3-point range en route to her career-high 13 points, while Wendeln – a walk-on from Scott High School who played previously at both Robert Morris College (Ill.) and Missouri-St. Louis – netted her NKU career-high 14 points in just 13 minutes of action. “Rachel played very well and hit some big shots,” Winstel said, “and I can’t say enough about the play of Nicole Chiodi. She is kind of like our unsung hero. She usually goes out there and plays 30 minutes a game but tonight I didn’t have to play her as much. I was able to put Danyelle (Echoles) and Diondra (Holliday) into a position to run some point, which we needed to do. “I think all of our kids played really well. I didn’t say a whole lot to them after the game except good job. I told them, ‘It is a good way to shut me up when you play well.’” Chiodi - who had eight points, four assists and three steals - and Brannen also earned spots on the all-tournament team for their play in the two-day event. Kentucky Wesleyan knocked off Fayetteville State, 77-60, in the other game Tuesday. NKU, which jumped up to 11th nationally in the NCAA Division II poll Tuesday, travels to Detroit, Mich., to meet Wayne State on Thursday. “It is a big regional game. Everybody is thinking about Christmas and going home, but we’re practicing tomorrow morning,” Winstel said. “Wayne State has not played since last Saturday, so they’ve had some time to really prepare for us. It is always a rough game when we get up there. We’re treating it like a business trip by going up there and playing hard, so we’ll see what happens.”
|
||||
