Wake Forest University
Mercer
Women's Basketball Defeats Mercer, 85-56
11/18/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Nov. 18, 2005
Winston-Salem, N.C. - The Wake Forest women's basketball team defeated Mercer on Friday night, 85-56. Three Demon Deacons scored in double figures to lead the way including 24 points from senior Cotelia Bond-Young and 23 points from senior Liz Strunk. Freshman Deirdre Naughton added 11 points in the win.
Wake Forest opened the game with an 11-0 run, fueled by three three-pointers. The Deacons continued to pull away from the Bears throughout the first half and led at the break 50-21. The Deacs shot 51.4 percent from the floor and connected on 10-of-18 three-pointers to put the game out of reach early. Wake Forest held Mercer to just 31 percent shooting in the opening half and just 1-of-11 on three-point tries.
Bond-Young led the Deacons in scoring with 24 points on 8-of-16 shooting including 5-of-11 from three. The senior added five rebounds, five assists, two steals and committed no turnovers in 27 minutes of action.
Strunk added 23 points for Wake Forest on 7-of-12 shooting and 4-of-8 from the land of three. Strunk also added two rebounds, three assists and one steal.
Naughton's 11 points came on 5-of-9 shooting including one three-pointer. She added five rebounds, two assists, one block and three steals in 28 minutes of action. Sophomore Tara Tate added eight points, four assists, three steals and also committed no turnovers in the win.
"The second half we got a little disjointed," said head coach Mike Petersen. "We lost our focus a little bit. Some of that is my fault. I probably overslept a little bit and left some lineups in that weren't used to playing together, so I probably disjointed the game a little bit in the second half. I was really happy that we got to play a lot of kids. We ended up winning basically by 30 and Porsche Jones basically did not play, so I'd say we played pretty good."
For the game, 10 different Demon Deacons scored points and 12 players got at least one rebound. Wake Forest recorded 19 steals and forced 25 Mercer turnovers. The Demon Deacons finished the night shooting 44.3 percent from the field (27-of-61) and 38.2 percent from three (13-of-34).
Sarah Russell led the Bears with 16 points. Megan Lewis and TaShera Lewis each added 11 points in the loss.
Wake Forest will next travel to Davidson on Saturday, Nov. 26. The Deacons and Wildcats will tip off at 12:00 p.m. For the latest on Wake Forest basketball, visit WakeForestSports.com.
