NCAA Women's Regional - St. Fort reaches milestone as Clayton State women advance in NCAA Division II Southeast Regionals

By Lee Wright, Clayton State

HICKORY, N.C. – March 13, 2009 – The milestone finally arrived for Marie St. Fort as the Clayton State Laker women’s basketball team also took its first success step in the 2009 NCAA Division II National Tournament.

St. Fort scored 17 points on Friday, becoming the fifth player in Clayton State women’s basketball history to reach 1,000 career points. More importantly, her play was key as the Lakers opened NCAA Division II National Tournament play with a thrilling 68-66 victory over Carson-Newman in the first round of the NCAA Division II Southeast Regional at Lenoir-Rhyne.

Now 24-6 overall, Clayton State advances to play Tusculum in the second round on Saturday at Lenoir-Rhyne’s Shuford Gymnasium. For the fifth straight season now, the Lakers have won their first-round game in the national tournament.

“We survived,” said Clayton State head coach Dennis Cox. “I thought we were in control there for a while, but we didn’t finish the game well. We were very fortunate – less than our best down the stretch.

“But I’m real happy for this team. Each season, it gets harder and harder to live up to expectations.”

Clayton State took control with a 15-2 run to end the first half. St. Fort drained two straight 3-point baskets to give the Lakers a 33-29 lead with 1:50 left. Clayton State stretched the lead to 10 points on a lay-up in transition by Dominique Jennings, and then took a 41-31 lead at halftime on a jump shot by Lesheria Stevens with four seconds left.

”The press was the key right there,” Cox said. “We defected a lot of passes in our press, and that got them a little rattled. We depend on rallies like that a lot.”

Carson-Newman (19-11) trimmed the Laker lead to three points early in the second half. However, Clayton State extended its lead back to 11 points, 60-49 with 11:31 remaining. Tanisha Woodard drained a 3-point basket, followed by lay-ups in transition by Lisa Jackson and Stevens.

But the Lakers would manage only eight points in the final 10 minutes of the game. That included only one field goal in the final 7:27 – a baseline jump shot by Stevens at the 3:42 mark to give Clayton State a 68-63 lead.

The good news, however, for the Lakers is that they held Carson-Newman without a field goal in the final 4:41 of the game. The closest the Lady Eagles could cut the lead was two points on a free throw by Shari Buford with 19 seconds remaining.

Carson-Newman had one final chance to tie and send the game into overtime with five seconds left, but an errant inbounds pass to end that hope.

In addition to St. Fort, Jackson recorded a double-double with 10 points and 14 rebounds for Clayton State. Brittany Hall scored 11 points and Stevens added 10 points.

For Carson-Newman, Angela Volentine scored 12 points, followed by Lindsey Eggleston with 11 points and Ashley Tipton scored 10 points.

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