Most of the time, nine is just a number, but to head coach Karen Kemp and the Lady Bucs, the number nine would give them a place in the record books.With their 87-65 win against the Belmont Bruins Monday night, ETSU increased their win streak to nine, a school record. However, Kemp didn’t say much about their “little streak.”

“We just take them one week at a time,” Kemp said.

Although the scoreboard at the end of the game showed a fairly lopsided win, ETSU had anything but smooth sailing. Belmont’s senior guard Amber Rockwell shot the lights out early. After watching the Lady Bucs begin the game on a 6-0 run, Rockwell led her team on a 14-point spurt of their own, knocking down two 3-pointers and a lay-up to give the Bruins a 21-10 lead midway through the first half.

Enter junior guard Tara Davis. With a little less than eight minutes left in the half, Davis promptly got to the free-throw line, and then sank two buckets from behind the arch. Her energy and hustle gave a shot in the arm to a Lady Bucs squad that was sluggish on both ends of the court.

“Tarita Gordon has been playing well and so has T.D. (Davis),” Kemp said after the game. “It’s hard to decide who to start, but it seems like over the last several ball games that Tara has been our spark off the bench, both on the offensive and defensive sides of the ball.”

Davis helped stretch ETSU’s lead to 40-31 at halftime. After the break, the Bucs really started rolling.

As per usual in these last few games, the Lady Bucs laid down the hammer at the start of the second half. Another junior guard, Tarita Gordon, showed that she could give the team the same kind of lift as her counterpart. Gordon hit two 3-pointers within the first two minutes of the second half, and led ETSU on a 27-6 run. The stats only got better from there.

Senior forward Siarre Evans scored 10 points to go with her 10 rebounds to record the 45th double-double of her career. Sophomore Gwen Washington also had 10 points, and Tara Davis broke in to double figures in points with 14.

With 10 minutes to go Kemp pulled the starters. It was a prime moment for the members of the Lady Bucs’ bench to perform. Freshman forward Ashley Benedict and sophomore guard Natalie Pickwell both recorded career highs with 14 and 11 points respectively.

“They [the bench] have really been working hard these last few weeks,” Kemp said. “Fortunately for us, they have been coming in and giving us good minutes when they are called upon.

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