After last weekend’s tournament in Hawaii, the ETSU Lady Bucs showed no signs of jet lag as they rolled over the North Florida Ospreys 82-54 Saturday night at Memorial Center. “It’s great to get a conference win first thing of the year,” senior forward Siarre Evans said after the win.

“Any time you get a conference game at home, you gotta take care of business,” head coach Karen Kemp said. “I was glad we could do that today.”

ETSU came into this game with a bit of a chip on their shoulder. In the pre-season, North Florida was picked to finish first in the conference. Junior guard Tara Davis said at the beginning of the season that it would definitely be motivation for them to play hard, and she followed through with a career-high 16 total points.

“We needed a fast start after the long road stretch,” Davis said. “We played well on the offensive side today, but in the future we hope to score even more from our defense.”

“She gets overlooked a lot but Tara Davis gets this team going,” said Kemp. “She knocked down some big shots that got us started.”

Evans also got in the action early in the first half. In the first 20 minutes she had already racked up 10 points and nine rebounds. By the end of the game, she had a total of 21 points and 14 rebounds to record her fifth straight double-double.

Davis and Evans carried their team to a 17-point lead at the half, and senior forward TaRonda Wiles made sure the Lady Bucs never looked back.

Wiles started the second half with only four points, but within the first 10 minutes of the second half, she sunk two 3-pointers to widen ETSU’s lead, and continued her steady play to finish the game with a double-double of her own: 14 points and 10 rebounds.

“Sierra is tenacious on the boards and Wiles contributes, too,” Kemp said. “Even with the smaller lineup, everyone knows they have to block out and fight hard.”

North Florida did show some signs of a comeback midway through the second half. Sophomore guard Brittany Kirkland scored back to back buckets to pull the Ospreys within 15, but this run was short-lived. The Lady Bucs finished strong, shooting over 50 percent in the second half.

“We focus on good, hard-nose defense and we did that today,” Kemp said. “We’re going to use our break we have to work even harder and get ready to play.”

With the victory, the Lady Bucs are 1-0 in conference play. They will have a 12-day break before traveling to Appalachian State to play the Mountaineers on Dec. 17 at 5 p.m.

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