Home / News and Information / News - February 2005 / Lady Barons ride defense to 73-46 victory

Brewton-Parker College senior forward Crystal McNeil (left) and junior guard Dannisha Winfrey (right) double-team Emmanuel College junior forward Stacy Tharpe in first-half action of the teams' Southern States Athletic Conference game Thursday, Feb. 18, at Brewton-Parker's Gillis Gymnasium in Mount Vernon. (Photo by Charles Conkin)

Defensive success continued to be the Brewton-Parker College women's basketball team's biggest ally Thursday night in the Lady Barons' 73-46 victory over Emmanuel College at Brewton-Parker's Gillis Gymnasium.

The No. 8 ranked (NAIA Division I) Lady Barons forced 38 Emmanuel turnovers and allowed the Lady Lions to hit just one 3-point shot, a weapon Emmanuel used to defeat No. 15 North Georgia College and State University in overtime Feb. 5 at home in Franklin Springs.

"We pressured their guards so much that they really didn't have the opportunity to get off many 3s," said Brewton-Parker coach Sheila Simmons, whose team improved to 16-1 in leading the Southern States Athletic Conference race and to a school-record 28-1 overall. "We did a lot of switching on their screens to contest the shots."

The Lady Barons made 24 steals, led by junior guard-forward Tamika Drinks of Mount Vernon with seven. Junior guard Dannisha Winfrey of Paterson, N.J., had five steals to go with her game-high 25 points, of which she had 20 in the first half in leading Brewton-Parker to a 44-20 halftime lead.

Junior guard Tori Williams of Valdosta followed Winfrey in scoring with 11 points, while senior forward Crystal McNeil of Pensacola, Fla., had team highs of seven rebounds and two blocked shots and junior guard Ashley Little of Lawrenceville had four assists.

Emmanuel (13-17, 7-12 SSAC) won the rebounding battle 39-26, with junior forward Stacy Tharpe grabbing a game-high 13 boards. Freshman forward-center Felecia Towler led the Lady Lions with 14 points.

Emmanuel hit 50 percent of its shots from the floor but was limited to just 40 total attempts, 1-for-6 from 3-point range. Brewton-Parker hit 48.6 percent of its first-half shots but fell off to 39.4 percent (26 made) for the game.

The Lady Barons remained one game ahead of North Georgia (19-7, 15-2 SSAC) in the conference race with three games remaining, including a head-to-head match-up in Brewton-Parker's home finale on Thursday, Feb. 24. North Georgia took the teams' first meeting Jan. 15 in Dahlonega, 89-60.

The Lady Barons first play Georgia Southwestern State University (5-20, 1-15 SSAC) on Saturday at 2 p.m. in Americus.

-BPC-