Saturday, November 12, 2011

Hampton, Radford score blowout wins

Talk about squeezing the life out of two opponents. Of course, it's one thing to overwhelm a Division III foe at home. It's quite another to suffocate a member of the mighty Big East in its own building.

Hampton 60, Pittsburgh 37: Yeah, these guys, all freshmen and sophomores, are more Panther cubs than full-fledged Panthers. But I don't care who you're playing; you hold them to 37 points you're ratcheting up the defense something fierce. "We haven't had a butt-kicking like that in a long time," Panthers coach Agnus Berenato said. "We've played Connecticut and Notre Dame and a lot of really good teams. Compliments to Hampton. They did a great job." We'd still like to see the Lady Pirates put the ball in the basket a little more often;  remarkably, the Panthers' shooting percentage was actually a tick better than Hampton's. But hey, 37 points allowed, against a Big East team, on the road, in your first game. Go on with your bad selves, Lady Pirates.

Radford 100, Eastern Mennonite 42: Most schools have a term for this kind of matchup - an exhibition game. But if counting this as a full-fledged regular-season game serves Tajama Ngongba's master plan of prepping these Highlanders for the much tougher battles ahead, so be it. Come March, no one remembers who you played in November anyway. Junior college transfer Tiana Cannon made her Radford debut a success with 15 points on  7-of-11 shooting and 8 rebounds, and all 12 Highlanders that saw action scored against the overmatched Royals.

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