Hurricanes Win Fourth Straight With Victory Over Florida A&M
Dec. 1, 2008
CORAL GABLES – The University of Miami women’s basketball team won its fourth straight game Monday night at the BankUnited Center, as surprising sophomore Vitalija Vasciunaite led the way with a career-high 18 points. The Hurricanes and the Rattlers of Florida A&M played at a heightened pace throughout, with Miami hanging on for the 83-69 victory.
With the victory Miami moves to 5-2 on the season, while Florida A&M falls to 3-2. Only two days after tying her then career-high 14 points against Santa Clara, Vasciunaite went off for a new one, with 18 points on 7 of 12 shooting. Four of her field-goals were from behind the arc, making it the third time in her career that she has reached that mark.
However, Vasciunaite wasn’t the only Hurricane to light it up from long range. Senior LaToya Cunningham matched her season and career-high with five made three pointers, on her way to 15 points.
Also scoring 15 points was sophomore Diane Barnes. The Lakeland, Fla. native did most of her damage from inside the paint. She may have only recorded four rebounds in the stat sheet, but three came on the offensive end, highlighted by a one-handed grab over two Rattler players in the second half. After the extremely athletic rebound, Barnes then put the ball off the glass as she was fouled for two points. She converted on the foul-shot to complete the three-point play.
The 83 points scored by the Hurricanes was the second-most on the season and their 24 assists was a season-best. Junior Charmaine Clark has been finding the open teammate all season and this game was no different as she dished out a career-high 10 assists, giving her 33 for the season after only seven games. Her previous season-high came in her freshman year, when she had 32.
The reigning ACC Rookie of the Week, Shenise Johnson, was limited, due to early foul trouble, but she still scored eight points to go with four assists and a team-high two steals.
There weren’t many turnovers in the game, 14 for Florida A&M and only 12 for Miami, but the `Canes scored 17 points off of them, compared to only three for the Rattlers.
Miami started the game on fire, jumping out to a 10-0 lead. Florida A&M, led by Deidra Jones’ 21 points pulled within a point of Miami with 5:38 to go in the opening-half, but Vascuinaite scored eight points in that span to make sure the Rattlers would never get a lead.
Miami opened up their lead to a game-high 19-points late in the second-half, after Vasciunaite hit her final jump shot of the night.
The Hurricanes host Indiana this Friday at 7 p.m. in the second annual ACC/Big Ten Women’s Basketball Challenge. For ticket information, please call 1-800-Go-Canes or visit hurricanesports.com.
