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| UDC celebrates Senior Day in style |
From our friends at UDC Athletics...
No. 22 Firebirds Clinch ECC Regular Season Championship with 13th Straight Win, 87-74 Over Mercy; Tie School Season Win Record with 24
On a night for honoring the four
Firebird seniors on the University of the District of Columbia women's basketball team, those four student-athletes shined bright to help the
host Firebirds secure an 87-74 win over East Coast Conference foe, Mercy
in their home regular season finale Thursday night.
With this 13th straight
victory, the No. 22 nationally-ranked Firebirds clinched an ECC Regular
Season Championship and No. 1 seed in next weekend's ECC Tournament, and
they also tied the school season-win record of 24 as they improved to
24-3 overall (17-2 ECC). UDC wraps up the season on the road Saturday
with a final ECC contest vs. St. Thomas Aquinas.
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| ShaKena Williams led UDC with 21 points (& 6 treys) |
Senior Washington, DC native ShaKena Williams
(Accounting - Frederick CC) thrilled her hometown crowd in possibly her
last career home game as she made six three-point field goals (seven
total FG) and finished with a team-high 21 points. Senior forward Denikka Brent
(Mechanical Engineering - Chesapeake, VA/Booker T. Washington HS), a
four-year standout at UDC with over 1,000 points and 500 rebounds in her
career, demonstrated why she is an ECC Player of the Year candidate as
she packed the stat sheet with 16 points, seven rebounds, and game-highs
of six steals and three blocked shots.
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| Denikka Brent (#11) dominates again |
Senior point guard Telisha Turner
(Criminal Justice - Wilmington, DE/Harcum), who figures to play a
prominent role in next week's ECC Tournament as the reigning Tournament
MVP, registered 15 points and a game-high four assists tonight. Also,
senior forward Diamonique Carr
(Criminal Justice - Camden, NJ/Harcum) made several great hustle plays
as she contributed six points, five rebounds, three steals and two
assists.
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| Telisha Turner added 15 points & 4 assists |
Both teams shot well from the field (UDC
- 49-percent, Mercy 47-percent), but the Firebirds more than doubled-up
the Mavericks in three-point field goals as they made 12-of-27
(44-percent) to Mercy's 5-of-14 (36-percent). UDC's suffocating
full-court press forced the Mavericks into 21 turnovers, which the
Firebirds converted into 27 points. The Firebirds also had a decisive
depth advantage as UDC's bench out-scored Mercy's, 23-9.
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| Tatyana Calhoun (#32) grabbed 7 rebounds in 13 minutes |
Williams connected on three of her first
four three-point attempts and Turner knocked down a pair of treys as
the Firebirds raced out to a 29-8 lead just past the 10-minute mark of
the first half. Mercy cut the lead to 16 (31-15) with a 7-2 run, but
the Firebirds soared to their biggest lead of the night with a 14-2
surge to pull away, 45-17 with a little over two minutes left in the
opening period. UDC, having out-shot Mercy, 52-percent to 37-percent
from the field and made 6-of-11 from long range, took a comfortable
47-23 lead into halftime.
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| Iman Scott (#24) scored 10 points in 10 minutes |
UDC tied its largest lead of the night
almost five minutes into the second half after a Williams three-pointer
made it 61-33. At that point, Deasia Goodson (nine points - all in the
second half), Tanayzha Augustine (19 points, game-high 15 rebounds) and
Brandone Roberts (22 points, eight rebounds) combined to help lead the
Mavericks on a 20-7 run to close within 15, 68-53 just before the
nine-minute mark. Mercy would also come within 12 (81-69) near the
three-minute mark after consecutive buckets by Monet Keane-Dawes, but
the Firebirds stiffened, and went on to win comfortably by a 13-point
margin.
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| Shantrel Oliver added 6 points & 2 steals |
Click here for last night's box score.
