The Lady Bucs basketball team opened their season on the road against perennial national powerhouse North Carolina and SEC giant South Carolina.
The ETSU women’s basketball dropped its season-opener to second-ranked North Carolina, 96-35, on Friday night at Carmichael Auditorium.
Junior Michele DeVault led the Lady Bucs with 13 points and Latoya Pringle and Jessica Breland each added 18 points for the Tar Heels.
The Tar Heels opened up to a quick 7-0 lead to start the game, but the Lady Bucs responded by going on a 10-4 run.
Jenny Norman narrowed the margin to 11-10, as she made a jumper with 13:43 remaining in the half. From there the Tar Heels held the Lady Bucs without a field goal for over nine minutes and took a 38-14 lead with under four minutes to go.
Foul trouble forced senior Brooke Wilhoit and junior Nichelle Akers to sit out the majority of the half as they were both whistled for early fouls. The Lady Bucs were called for 13 fouls to only the Tar Heels three in the first half.
DeVault came out in the second half scoring the first six points for ETSU by draining a pair of threes, and totaled 10 points in the second frame.
However, the Tar Heels quickly cooled off the Lady Bucs, as they held ETSU without a field goal for 9:39.
Freshman Siarre Evans finally ended the drought for the Lady Bucs, by nailing a jumper with 7:51 remaining.
In the end, second chance points and poor shooting hurt the Lady Bucs as they let the Tar Heels score 36 points off 33 offensive boards throughout the entire contest. North Carolina outrebounded the ETSU, 71-26.
“We didn’t stick to our game plan for the entire 40 minutes, and we couldn’t control the pace of the game, said head coach Karen Kemp. “We wanted to slow the pace down, but they didn’t allow us to do that. You can’t be the No. 2 team with just two players. They have the total package.”
The second part of the road trip resulted in the Lady Bucs falling to South Carolina Sunday afternoon, 78-53, at the Colonial Center in Columbia, S.C.
The Lady Bucs held in there for the first 30 minutes, but with the game tied at 45 with 10:56 remaining, South Carolina used a 33-8 run to close out the game.
The first half was as tight a contest as it could it. The Gamecocks held the largest lead with a six-point advantage, but ETSU’s strong defense forced South Carolina to commit 12 turnovers.
It was raining threes for junior DeVault as she nailed three of the four 3-point field goals for the Bucs.
DeVault scored all of her 13 points in the half, and went 4-for-4 from the free-throw line.
Evans gave the ETSU its first lead of the season at 24-23, after stealing the ball from Stacy Booker and scoring on the fast break with 4:15 remaining in the half.
The Lady Bucs would go up five at 30-25, when DeVault nailed a three with 2:02 to go before half.
The Lady Bucs were a perfect 10-of-10 from the charity stripe.
The Lady Bucs stretched their four-point halftime lead to seven, at 39-32 with 17:28 remaining in the game thanks to a three-point field goal by Wilhoit. However, South Carolina’s strong pressure led them on a 7-0 run to tie the game at 39 with 14:40 to go in the second half.
From there South Carolina’s Melanie Johnson could not miss as she scored 19 of her 23 points in the second half.
The strong pressure by the Gamecocks forced ETSU to turn the ball over 19 times in the second half.
DeVault led the Lady Bucs in scoring for the second straight game with her 13 points. Evans also was the second ETSU player to reach double figures Sunday afternoon with 10.
South Carolina out shot the Lady Bucs 42.3 percent (30-71) to 34 percent (18-53).
The Lady Bucs fall to 0-2 on the early season, and the Gamecocks move to 1-0.
The Lady Bucs will head back to Johnson City and prepare for their home-opener on Friday, Nov. 17 when they host Davidson.

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