Shaw Lady Bears Downs #15 Rollins 87-71, to Advance to NCAA D-II Championship Game

THE SHAW UNIVERSITY LADY BEARS AND HEAD
COACH JACQUES CURTIS WILL GO FOR THE
 DIVISION II NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP ON FRIDAY
AGAINST ASHLAND.  THE GAME WILL BE 
NATIONALLY TELEVISED LIVE ON
CBSSPORTS CHANNEL AND VIDEO STREAMED
AT http://www.ncaa.com/ AT 8 PM EDT. 

SAN ANTONIO, Texas - Three Lady Bears had double-doubles to lead Shaw past #15 Rollins 87-71 in a game played at Bill Greehey Arena on the campus of Saint Mary's University. With the win, the Lady Bears advance to play #2 Ashland for the Division II NCAA Women's Basketball National Championship Friday night.

The game is scheduled for 8:00 p.m. EDT and will be nationally televised live on CBSSports Channel and video screamed at NCAA.com.

Crystal Harris led the Lady Bears with 24 points and 14 rebounds, while Kyria Buford had 22 points and 10 rebounds and Aslea Williams scored 12 and pulled in 14 boards.

Rollins had no answer for Shaw's "bigs" and could not find an outside shooting touch, hitting only five of 29 from beyond the arc and only 36.5 percent from the field. In contrast, Shaw sank 40.3 percent of its shots.

"Rollins is a good team," said Shaw head coach Jacques Curtis. "You don't get to the Final Four by being lucky. We had a good start and were able to ride it out. We went with our bigs and they did the job. Now we have the chance to win the national championship."

The Lady Bears broke on top early, then built a 20-point lead before halftime. The Tars fought back in the second, trimming the Shaw lead to as little as 12 early in the half employing a full-court press and sinking key shots.

"We knew they'd make the run. There were just times they played harder than we did," said Curtis. "We beat a good team tonight."

The game started slowly, with neither team hitting the scoreboard for nearly two full minutes. Williams finally broke the ice with a jumper in the lane with 18:05 left in the first half.

It would be another three minutes before the Tars hit the scoreboard, and by then, Shaw had scored eight.

At the 12:52 mark, Shemieka Brown missed a jumper, got her own rebound and hit the layup to give Shaw a 15-5 lead.

Rollins fought back, trimming the Shaw lead to only four when Ashley Jones hit a three pointer for the Tars with 10:20 left on the first half clock.

Shaw then reeled off a 17-2 scoring run, culminating in a Sequoyah Griffin layup on the fast break that gave Shaw a 36-17 lead with 5:47 left in the half. The Lady Bears would build the lead to as many as 22, and led by 18 at the half, 48-30.

Buford hit a layup to open the scoring in the second half, but the Tars responded with an eight-point run punctuated by Jasmine Bradley's layup that cut the Shaw lead to 50-38.

With 12:56 left in the game, Paris Moore hit a jumper in the paint for the Tars, was fouled, and sank a free throw for the old-fashioned three-point play to trim Shaw's lead to 13.

Buford and Harris then combined for six straight points, extending the lead to 19 and effectively putting the game out of reach, even with 11:31 left on the clock. It took five minutes for the Tars to cut the lead to 13 again, and the Lady Bears answered with five straight.

In addition to the three double-doubles, Shaw was led in assists by Brittney Spencer and Allyssa Lane who had three apiece.

For Rollins, Jones and Paris Moore led the way with 13 points apiece. Three players had five rebounds and another three had four apiece. McDaniel had three assists to pace the Tars.

Shaw will now face Ashland, the second-ranked team in the nation, in the title game Friday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern. The Eagles are led by Kari Daugherty who averages 21.2 points and 14.0 rebounds per game.

"We're going to pound the ball inside," said Curtis of the upcoming game, "and they're going to pound the ball inside. We hope to have a chance to play a triple-post against them with all three of our bigs (Williams, Buford and Harris) in the game at a time. We haven't had a chance to play our jumbo offense yet, but this might be the game."

VIDEO: Bears oust Tars, off to finals 

 

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Rollins women fall 87-71 to Shaw in NCAA Division II semifinals

SAN ANTONIO -- The Rollins women's basketball team made much history during the 2011-12 season but the ride stopped one game short of a shot at the national title.

The Tars fell behind big early and never recovered in an 87-71 loss to Shaw in an NCAA Division II Final Four semifinal game late Wednesday night in San Antonio.

Shaw (27-6) jumped to an 8-0 led in the first four minutes. Rollins battled back to trail only 19-5 when Ashley Jones sank a 3-point basket with 10:20 to play in the first half. That was as close as the Tars could get. Over the next 6 minutes, Shaw ripped off a 22-4 run for a 44-19 lead, and from there coasted into a berth in Thursday's national championship game against Ashland.

It was the first time Rollins played in the Final Four. Rollins (28-5) had ...

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