California Baptist University
Georgetown (KY)
TIGER TAMERS
12/29/2010 11:33:00 PM | Women's Basketball
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. --- V.V. Vasciunaite scored a career-high 32 points, Dana Olsen had 18 points and six rebounds in her season debut, and California Baptist University opened the second half with a 15-2 run to roll to its fourth straight win with a 92-70 victory over Georgetown (Ky.) Wednesday afternoon in the opening game of the GSAC Challenge hosted by Westmont College.
The win moves the 17th-ranked Lancers to 10-3 overall, while the Tigers fall to 6-7.
In addition to their big spurt to start the second half, the Lancers also began the game scoring the first seven points.
"We went on two runs to start both halves, which is always good," said CBU Head Coach John Marcum. "We got good play off the bench. And let's face it, V.V. can flat out shoot it."
Vasciunaite, who is seventh in the NAIA in scoring (20.6 avg.), had 22 points in the first half when the Lancers carried a 41-34 lead into the locker room. She finished 10-for-15 from the floor and 5-for-8 from downtown.
Meanwhile, Olsen was 7-for-10 from the floor in 17 minutes off the bench.
"Dana is pretty good and will give us a lift from here on out," said Marcum. "She can score with her back to the basket and gives us a low block presence and helps shore up some things defensively. She helped us a ton tonight."
The Tigers led 23-20 when Olsen scored the next eight Lancer points. Her layup with 6:58 to play gave the Lancers the lead for good at 26-25. She pushed it up to 28-25 with two free throws and then Shanice Billington got a steal and a layup to push it up to 30-25. After the Tigers got within two (32-20), Vasciunaite hit back-to-back 3-pointers to push the lead up to eight with two minutes left.
After committing just eight first half turnovers, the Tigers committed seven in the first 6:50 of the second half and misfired on four of five shots, and the Lancers capitalized. Billington started things with a steal and lay-up on the first possession. Maria Mesa-Nauls sandwiched a lay-up around Vasciunaite and Marlee Rice treys, and Olsen had a conventional 3-point play. Brenna Hahn capped the run with her first points of the game, a jumper from the right wing, and the Lancers led 56-36 with 13:10 to play.
"We keep deflections as a stat on the bench, and we had 56 tonight, which is a season high," said Marcum. "We disrupted them quite a bit. Defensively we played very well. They weren't comfortable at all until a shot when up."
Georgetown did out-rebound the Lancers, 54-40, and had 28 offensive rebounds.
"Rebounding is all about mentality and will, and we didn't have it in that respect tonight," said Marcum. "If that doesn't get better quickly, we'll be in trouble tomorrow."
After the Lancers took their first 20-point lead, the Tigers got no closer than 13 points. The largest lead was the final score. The Lancers shot 52.3 percent from the field and made 7-of-17 (41.2 percent) 3-pointers.
Billington finished with 10 points, a game-high nine rebounds and
six assists. Renetha Burton tallied eight points and four rebounds. Hahn, who
is second on the team scoring 17.6 points, finished with six.
The Lancers next play No. 11 Westminster (Utah) Thursday at 1 p.m.
