Jan. 14, 2006

Final Stats

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - For the past three seasons, senior guard Frantina Coleman has been the team's defensive stopper, putting her offensive skills on ice for the betterment of the team.

But Saturday afternoon against Alabama A&M, Coleman showed that she is still capable of putting the ball in the basket, scoring a game-high 18 points in leading the Lady Hornets to a 50-43 win over the Lady Bulldogs at the Joe L. Reed Acadome.

Along with sophomore guard Shantae Robinson, who added 15 points, ASU was able to get enough offense to go along with outstanding defense in the victory.

I'll tell you, those two guards -- Shantae and Frantina -- they stepped it up tonight," said head coach Freda Freeman-Jackson. "They controlled the tempo in the first half, and they controlled the tempo in the second half. You can't ask for more than that."

Coleman, who is averaging only 6.6 points per game this season, has been hot of late. She has scored in double figures in four of the Lady Hornets' last six games and is second behind the injured L'Teisha Holloway at almost 11 points per contest. It might be exactly the remedy for a team that has struggled to score this season.

"She knows she's going to have to give it to us," said Freeman-Jackson, whose team is scoring only 56 points a night in five conference games. "Anytime you can get scoring from someone who you didn't bring here to score, it's a plus."

The game was close throughout the first half as ASU clung to a 27-26 advantage. The defense was lacking, allowing Alabama A&M to shoot 47 percent from the field and go 10-of-12 from the charity stripe.

"At one point there in the first half, they made 10 straight free throws," Freeman-Jackson said. "When we stopped sending them to the free throw line we were able to put a little distance between us. Free throws really kept them in the game."

The Lady Hornets turned up the defense in the second half, forcing A&M to miss 14 of its first 15 shots in the period while ASU opened up a 39-28 lead - the largest of the game.

"We turned up the tempo defensively at the start of the second half," Freeman-Jackson said. "I pick and choose my spots when I do that. But we turned it up right there and took it to them."

The Lady Bulldogs short only 15 percent in the second half but stayed in the game from the free throw line. They would get as close as five points at the 4:38 mark but ASU was able to finish the job and get an important win.

"We came out to make a statement in this game," said Coleman, who added five rebounds and four steals in 35 minutes. "This was the top team in the SWAC, and we had something to prove."