Feb. 9, 2009
Box Score
KENNESAW, Ga. - With his team looking listless offensively, Kennesaw State head women's basketball coach Colby Tilley knew he had to do something drastic to spark his team if they were to have any chance of defeating Mercer in Monday afternoon's Atlantic Sun Conference contest. His starters and key reserves had come out and shot just 1-for-16 over the first 11 minutes of the contest.
Coaches don't win 703 games without trying drastic measures at times, and the move by Coach Tilley paid off. Using a lineup of freshman Angie Smith, freshman Tamasha Bolden, junior JoeDonna Molden, senior Ashley Johnson, and junior Jasmine Johnson, the Lady Owls hit on five of their last nine shots in the half to pull within three of the visitors, 21-18, at halftime.
With the regular unit back on the court in the second half, KSU (11-11, 8-6) opened on an 8-2 run to take a 28-23 lead. The Bears battled back to even the score, with the teams trading the lead back-and-forth until just under six minutes to go in the contest.
At that mark in the game, Lockett took over for the Lady Owls. Harkening back to her 36-point performance against Georgia Southern earlier this season, Lockett exploded for seven consecutive points, starting with a three-pointer and finishing with a lay-up and a pair of free throws to complete a four-point play. Jennifer Baker drained a pair of free throws seven second later to push the lead to 9-0 and give the Lady Owls a 51-42 lead.
Mercer sank a free throw to try and stop the bleeding, but Montinique Nixon scored her 11th and 12th points of the game on a pair of free throws. Then after a turnover one second later by Mercer (12-11, 8-6), Lockett drained a three-pointer from the corner to give the Lady Owls an insurmountable advantage.
Lockett would sink a free-throw in the last minute of the contest to finish with a game-high 19 points, all of which came in the second half. Nixon scored 12 points in the second half, grabbing 11 rebounds for the game to complete the double-double.
"I felt we needed to send a message to our starters," said Coach Tilley. "We challenged the team in the locker room at halftime, and we made sure they realized we were in this game because our second unit was carrying us.
"The second unit really won us the game today," Coach Tilley added.
Dominique Chism scored 13 points to lead Mercer. After committing just 14 turnovers in the first meeting between the two schools, the Bears committed 24 for the second game.
