Tennessee Temple Women's Basketball team hit the road on
Thursday 4th March to face King College
in the NCCAA Division 1 Mid-East Region Semi-Final game. King College,
a dually-affiliated NCAA II member, were the number 2 seed after finishing the
regular season 15-11 and ranked 15th in the NCCAA. TTU earned the number 3 seed after ending the
regular season 11-14 and finishing 19th in the NCCAA rankings.
The Lady Crusaders started off the game well, playing their
brand of stifling defense forcing the Lady Tornadoes to a number of early
turnovers. The score was 15-12, when the Tornadoes got some momentum going on
an 18-4 run. The Lady Crusaders were down by as much as 18 points with only a
few minutes left in the first half. To close the half, through the effective
offensive play of Gonzalez and James, and strong rebounding by Wells, the Lady
Crusaders fought back and headed into the locker room at half time on a
positive note, cutting the lead down to only 6 points, with the score at 41-35.
The Lady Crusaders were ready for a strong second half,
however the Tornadoes came out firing on all cylinders hitting six
three-pointers in a row to start the half. Shooting 52% from the 3pt line was
simply too much for Temple
to handle, and despite a late surge at the end of the half, the Lady Crusaders
ended the 09-10 season with a loss of 74-88.
Junior guard Kanetra Gonzalez had a season-high 29 points,
combined with 5 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals, with only 2 turnovers in 36
minutes of play. Tennessee
Temple's seniors both had
strong nights with Stephanie Lovett finishing with 16 points, and Shontale
Wells ending her season with 10 points and 9 rebounds, 7 of which were on the
offensive end. Cherelle James ended with her 8th double-double of
the season, chipping in 15 points and 10 rebounds.