The University of Mississippi Athletics
NC State Second Half Run Dooms Lady Rebels 80-71
12/21/2007 | Women's Basketball
Ole Miss junior center Shawn Goff led the way for the Lady Rebels with a team-high 20 points to go along with seven rebounds. Senior forward Carla Bartee collected 17 points and a team-high nine rebounds, while Bianca Thomas had a season-high 17 points after shooting 6-of-8 from the floor, including 5-of-7 from behind the arc.
NC State senior forward Khadijah Whittington paced the Wolfpack with 20 points and nine rebounds. NC State also received double digit points from its trio of starting guards as Nikitta Gartrell scored 13 points, while Shayla Fields and Megan Zullo each added 12 points apiece.
NC State began its comeback in the second half at the 15:32 mark as Whittington converted on a layup to cut the Ole Miss lead to nine points at 52-43. The Lady Rebels, however, maintained no worse than a six point lead over the next five minutes before taking an eight point lead following a layup from Bartee with just over 10 minutes remaining in the game. NC State then answered with an 8-0 run of its own to tie the contest at 58-58 as Fields hit a three-pointer from the left wing.
Ole Miss got two consecutive baskets thereafter from Goff to open back up a four point lead with just over seven minutes left on the clock. After NC State tied the game with two straight baskets of its own, Bartee gave Ole Miss the lead again as she scored on a layup to make the score 66-64. The Wolfpack responded with a second 8-0 run to take a 72-66 lead with just over three minutes remaining. NC State would go on to limit the Lady Rebels to just four points over the final three minutes.
Three-point shooting helped NC State throughout the contest as the Wolfpack shot over 55 percent in the first half and 60 percent in the second from deep. Consequently, Ole Miss’ managed to shoot only 29 percent in the second half from distance after shooting 50 percent in the first half. Despite the second half shooting discrepancy, Ole Miss was 42.1 percent from three-point range for the game.
From the free throw line, the Lady Rebels struggled on the few tries they got at the stripe. After not shooting any in the first half, Ole Miss hit just 5-of-9 while the Wolfpack were a perfect 12-for-12 at the line.
At halftime, the Lady Rebels held a three-point advantage at 38-35 by shooting over 47 percent from the floor to go along with 18 points off the bench.
Thomas came off the bench to tally 14 points after hitting 4-of-5 from behind the three-point line, including a buzzer beater three-pointer from NBA range to close the first stanza. Bartee posted seven points at the half while Goff had six point and five rebounds.
With the Wolfpack holding a nine-point lead with 7:14 left in the first half, a three-pointer from Thomas began a 12-2 run to allow the Lady Rebels to pull ahead 27-26. Back-to-back three-pointers from Thomas and Shantell Black sandwiched a steal from freshman guard Kayla Melson to help secure a halftime lead for Ole Miss.
Ole Miss returns to action Dec. 29 at 8:00 p.m. when the Lady Rebels face UC Santa Barbara in the opening round of the Lady Griz Holiday Classic hosted by the
