JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – For the Jacksonville University women's basketball team, Thursday was the perfect time to prove the basketball adage that defense wins games. It does.
The Dolphins (1-2) held Bethune-Cookman to five points over the last 7:06 of the game to get their first win of the season, 64-51, in the team's home opener at Swisher Gym.
"It was a huge win; we needed that,'' JU coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin said after watching her team put the clamps on the Wildcats. "With such a young team, seven new players, it is really important for them to see progress and tonight there was a lot of progress.''
The teams played to a 34-all tie through the first half and went back and forth in the second until the Wildcats (0-4) tied at 46 with 7:06 to play. It was then, the Dolphins kicked into overdrive.
Junior Loliya Briggs (Gainesville, Fla.) started the festivities with a free throw after getting fouled pulling down an offensive rebound and a 47-46 lead.
Before the Wildcats knew what hit them, Briggs had scored four more points, sophomore Sherranda Reddick (Jacksonville, Fla.), who led the team with 16 points for the game, banked seven and LaDeyah Forte (Pensacola, Fla.) added another two and JU was up 60-51 with 2:20 to play. Forte ended the game with a dozen points.
In between, the Dolphins took a couple of charging calls on Bethune-Cookman drives as the defense continually put the offense in scoring position.
"We want to be the toughest team out there,'' McCuin said. "If you can't take a charge you aren't tough.''
Briggs, who ended with 12 points, said team play was the key down the stretch.
"Defense wins games,'' she said. "It's because of our defense we had our offense. If we didn't make those stops we wouldn't have made those transition points. We played as a team and had each other's backs and that's why we looked like that. We talked about defending our home court and that's what we did.''
JU's Kimberly Dawkins (Atlanta, Ga.) pulled down eight of her team's 34 rebounds to lead the way.
The teams each used a spicy assortment of three-pointers, drives, spunky defense and turnovers to play even through an entertaining first half.
The Dolphins held the biggest lead of the first 20 minutes of eight points before the Wildcats clawed their way back.
JU wound up shooting 50 percent from the field (11 of 22) and hit 57 percent of its 3-pointers in the half. BC was 41.7 percent from the field and JU held a 14-9 rebounding edge.
JU can't take much time to celebrate as 23rd-ranked Syracuse comes to town Saturday at 3 p.m. (Swisher Gym).
"We've improved every game and we continue to make progress,'' Briggs said. "The word for this season is progress and as long as we improve every game that's what we're trying to do.''
- Jim Nasella
