Buies Creek, N.C. ? Sophomore forward Jessica Conner (Cocoa, Fla.) scored a career-high 24 points on nine of 11 shooting, adding eight rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block, but it wasn't enough to save the Stetson women's basketball team (8-21, 5-15 Atlantic Sun) from its seventh consecutive loss and 12th in the last 13 games. The Hatters fell 67-57 at Campbell (12-17, 5-15 A-Sun) to conclude the regular season.
The Hatters had clinched the #5 seed in the A-Sun tournament Thursday evening when Campbell lost at home to league-leading Florida Gulf Coast; Stetson will play #4 seed Mercer at 12 p.m. Central (1 p.m. Eastern) Thursday, March 5. The Bears earned the fourth seed when they beat ETSU 90-79 in Johnson City, Tenn. today (clinching the outright regular season title for FGCU in the process) and Kennesaw State lost on the road at USC Upstate.
Stetson was down just one point at halftime and rallied to take a 44-40 lead with 11:26 left as Conner dominated the Lady Camel defense in the paint to get easy layups and three-point plays on possession after possession. However, Ashley Williamson's basket with 9:44 to go kickstarted an 11-2 Campbell run that gave them the lead back for good.
The Hatters would fight hard the whole game, continuing to work the ball inside to Conner until Campbell went into a zone defense. Stetson could not successfully shoot the home team out of that zone, although sophomore guard Tierra Brown (Orlando, Fla.) drilled a three-pointer with 2:48 to go that pulled the Hatters within 55-53. Stetson would make just one more field goal the rest of the way, unfortunately, and Campbell knocked down 10 of 12 free throw attempts in the final 2:19 to wrap up the win on its Senior Day.
Conner surpassed her previous career high of 19 points, set November 16, 2008 in an 84-70 home win over Norfolk State. Senior point guard Sharnesha Smith (Kingsland, Ga.) scored 13 points in her final career regular season game; junior forward Ashli Jackson (Opelika, Ala.) tied her career high with 10 rebounds. Senior center Ayesha Barkley (East Orange, N.J.) blocked two shots and became just the third player in program history to go over 90 career rejections.
Lauren Arthur led Campbell with 14 points and Lindsay Smithberger had 11, all of which came in the second half to lead the Camels down the stretch.
A-Sun.TV will webcast all games from the 2009 General Shale Brick Atlantic Sun Conference Men's and Women's Basketball Championships next week at Lipscomb University's Allen Arena in Nashville, Tenn. Hatter fans can also log into their Hatter Vision accounts to hear Murray Miller's radio broadcast chronicling the Stetson men's and women's basketball squads' attempts at the championship.
