Women’s Basketball Downs Winthrop, 90-52

Dec. 5, 2002

Clemson All-ACC guard Chrissy Floyd scored 18 points in just 22 minutes and Tabitha Vasilas added a career high 13 points in just 12 minutes, leading Clemson to a 90-52 women’s basketball victory over Winthrop at The Civic Center of Anderson.

Clemson improved to 3-1 with the victory, while Winthrop fell to 2-3. Clemson Head Coach Jim Davis was coaching against one of his former players in this contest. Winthrop coach Cheryl Nix played for Clemson from 1984-88.

Clemson will next be in action on Saturday night at 7:00 PM when the Lady Tigers play host to 11th ranked Penn State at The Civic Center of Anderson. Any fan donating a canned good will be admitted to the Civic Center free of charge. The Clemson men will play host to Maine in the first game of the doubleheader at 4:00 PM.

Clemson had seven players score at least eight points and none of those players saw more than 23 minutes of action. In addition to the scoring totals by Floyd and Vasilas, Maggie Slosser added 12 and Lakeia Stokes added 10. Three Lady Tigers, Amanda White, Kenetra Queen and Julie Aderhold, all scored eight points apiece. White led all rebounders with nine.

Winthrop had two players in double figures. Laura Herman scored 17 in just 27 minutes in a fine performance, while Kia Bell, the team’s top scorer for the season, added 10, but got just eight shots against Clemson’s tough defense.

Clemson won the battle of the boards 49-32, including a 25-8 advantage in offensive rebounds. Clemson’s defense forced 30 turnovers off 17 steals. Eleven different Lady Tigers had at least one steal, a contributing factor to Clemson’s 34-7 advantage in points off turnovers.

Clemson took a 21-point lead at halftime. The Lady Tigers dominated the backboards and forced 15 turnovers in the opening half. Clemson made 17-40 shots from the field and 11-15 free throws in taking a 47-26 lead at intermission. Floyd had 12 points in the opening half in 15 minutes. Lakeia Stokes, Clemson’s athletic starting small forward, added eight points and five rebounds, while forward Maggie Slosser and point guard Kanetra Queen added six apiece. Eight different Lady Tigers scored at least three points in the first half.

Clemson’s defense was a big reason for the large first half lead. Clemson held Winthrop scoring leader Kia Bell in check, as the Winthrop guard scored just two points. Jannette Arrington led Winthrop with eight points at intermission, while center Stephanie Pannell scored seven. Clemson scored 15 points off 15 Winthrop turnovers in the first half.

Clemson jumped out to a 21-9 lead in the first 6:27 of the game. A three-point goal by senior Tabitha Vasilas gave Clemson that 12-point lead. Winthrop came back cut the margin to just six at 21-15 on a jumper by Laura Herman. But the Lady Tigers ran the margin back to 33-16 with a 12-1 run. Clemson’s largest lead of the first half was the halftime score.

“We used a lot of players tonight,” said Head Coach Jim Davis. “Our second group actually executed better than our first group. I was glad to see that. We had some people who had not been shooting well come through tonight. Julie Aderhold hit some outside shots and Leah Roper hit some shots and played well defensively. Tabitha Vasilas is the best shooter on our team and she showed it tonight. She just has to improve on her defense.

“We took care of the basketball and that is important (24/13 assist/turnover ratio) That will be very important this weekend when Penn State comes to town. They are a very good team. They have a young lady who was the leading scorer in the nation last year as a sophomore. We worked on some things that we are going to need against Penn State.