Women’s basketball defeats Zips

Matt Lofgren|January 20, 2011

Senior leadership is in high supply for the Flashes as four senior starters were in double figures, lead in all scoring by Taisja Jones (17). The team had another strong performance by Jamilah Humes who had 15, and looked good all night.

Senior Stephanie Gibson’s big 3-pointer to extend the score to 12-6 was a big momentum shift for the Flashes and, with a time out, took the wind right out of the Zips sails. With the shift in scoring, the Flashes could concentrate more on defending the Akron shooters who were suffocated all night.

For one of only a couple occasions this season, the three-point shot proved to be a weapon for the Flashes. As a whole, the team shot 7-of-14 from beyond the arc with Stephanie Gibson, Chenel Harris and Jones hitting a pair apiece.

Coach Bob Lindsay kept his foot on the gas most of the first half, but a young resilient Akron team would respond as the Zips managed to hang around. For the Flashes, their largest lead of the first half was four minutes before half as the team was up 11. After that point though, the Flashes became ice cold from the field missing several straight shots and letting the Zips right back into the game before half.

Going into halftime, the Flashes had to keep the pressure on, only holding onto a 34-30 lead.

“We made some defensive adjustments at halftime. We tried to play a little bit differently and try and play a couple of people a little bit differently,” Lindsay said.

What ever his halftime speech was, the Flashes responded well by attacking the basket right away to start the half on a Humes bucket 10 seconds in, setting the tone offensively for the rest of the half.

“It was a good second-half effort on our part. I thought we picked it up a little bit defensively, obviously made a run, broke it open and for the most part maintained a lead,” Lindsay said.

The Flashes saw their biggest lead at the end of the game when Iris Butcher hit a jumper to push the lead to 72-51.

Harris had one of her best games of the season collecting a double-double with 10 points and 11 hard-fought rebounds.

“Our main goal is just to come in and crash the boards,” Harris said. “On any given day, I could run in and just not get any rebounds. You just never know where the ball is going to bounce, but I was blessed today the ball bounced into my hands so I was happy, and it feels great to do that against our rival.”

The Flashes will travel to Ball State to take on the (7-10, 2-2 MAC West) Cardinals at 1 p.m. Saturday.

Contact Matt Lofgren at [email protected].