Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Isles take Jacksonville by storm

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Thursday, December 21, 2000

Isles take Jacksonville by storm
A&M-CC women have fun trouncing Dolphins, 79-52
By Matt Young
Caller-Times

David Adame/Caller-Times

A&M-CC’s Detra Johnson shoots against Jacksonville at Memorial Coliseum. The Islanders won, 79-52.

Sheryl Estes' team had been dragging in the past couple weeks losing four of its last five games, but she knew the perfect cure. Her Texas A&M-Corpus Christi women's basketball team found that cure in a 79-52 laugher over Jacksonville on Wednesday at Memorial Coliseum.
   "Winning cures a lot of things," Estes said.
   "Laugher" is the appropriate term for the Islanders' win, because the entire team had fun blowing out the Dolphins. Detra Johnson led A&M-Corpus Christi (6-6) with 16 points, despite playing sparingly in the second half. The game was such a mismatch that reserve center Roberta Plaza was the Islanders' second-leading scorer with nine points. Plaza had hardly played this season, appearing in just two games before Wednesday.
   "This game was so much fun; for real, I don't remember having that much fun playing ball in a while," Johnson said. "We were all laughing and smiling the whole time. It was a relief to get a game like this."
   A&M-Corpus Christi set the tone early by opening up the game in a full-court press. The press forced Jacksonville into a quick-paced game and gave the Islanders a huge advantage. The Dolphins finished with 26 turnovers.

David Adame/Caller-Times

A&M-CC’s ShaKayla Hawkins goes up for two against Jacksonville during Wednesday’s game.

   "After watching film we really felt like we could press this team," Estes said. "We wanted to start out quick and give our players some confidence. I think the press did that and that led to us shooting the ball much better."
   The improved shooting was key in a 17-0 run early in the game that put Jacksonville to sleep early. In the spurt, Johnson, Kendra Smith and Jesse Monlux all hit 3-pointers for the Islanders. When the run was finished, A&M-Corpus Christi led 31-13.
   Jacksonville would never recover to close the gap to less than 10 points. A&M-Corpus Christi used an 11-0 run to open up a 30-point midway through the second half.
   After shooting 35 percent or less from the field in their last three games, the Islanders snapped out of that shooting funk by making 48 percent of their shots against Jacksonville.
   "We just came out a lot more focused, because we knew we needed to get a win," Johnson said. "We came out ready to play and took care of business, which we hadn't been doing before this game."



Staff writer Matt Young can be reached at 886-3702 or by e-mail at youngm@caller.com

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