Defending champs eliminated from CIAA Women’s Tournament
February 27, 2007
For the first time in four years, the CIAA will crown a new women’s basketball champion as defending champ Shaw University (18-10) was eliminated by Johnson C. Smith (16-13), 58-47, in the final quarterfinal game of the day at Charlotte’s Bobcats Arena.
Led by Brittany Sumpter’s 23 points and Rochelle Bodie’s 15 points and 15 rebounds, JCSU added a third straight win over Shaw by forcing the Lady Bears into 30 turnovers resulting in 29 Lady Golden Bull points.
Tiana Pope contributed 10 points and six assists to the victory for the homestanding team
JCSU never trailed in the contest jumping out to an early 20-6 lead. They went into the locker room at halftime with a 34-23 advantage thanks to 21 points off of 20 first half turnovers by the Lady Bears.
Shaw never got closer than five points when Jamie Goshen sank a jumper to cut the JCSU lead to 36-31 at 17:22 in the second half.
The Lady Golden Bulls responded with an 8-2 run over the next 3:19 to extend their lead back to 11 points when Sumpter scored on a driving layup to give JCSU a 44-33 lead.
Both teams played even for the remainder of the game in a reverse of last year’s championship game when Shaw topped JCSU to win its fourth consecutive CIAA title.
Tanisha McGaughey led all Shaw scorers with nine points.
Johnson C. Smith advances to meet Elizabeth City State in Friday’s semifinals at 3:00pm.
"We are playing well right now,” said JCSU head coach Vanessa Taylor. “But we have a very strong team to face on Friday. They beat us twice this season."
