CHARLESTON, S.C.- In the one and only exhibition game before the 2011-2012 campaign starts, Charleston Southern Women's Basketball won a lopsided contest 114-35 over the visiting Sewanee Tigers.

The Buccaneers started at a frantic pace the first 5 minutes of the contest. Helen Terry hit the game's first bucket while Sewanee looked to press all over the floor. Running five substitutions in and out at a time Sewanee tried to throw fresh bodies at the Buccaneers. After a media timeout the Buccaneers clamped down on the defensive end as they held the Tigers to only one basket in the opening ten minutes of play. The mismatches out on the perimeter with the bigger and more athletic Buccaneers caused the Tigers problems. With a number of fresh faces for the Buccaneers, Coach Julie Goodenough looked to give everyone a lot of looks on both ends of the floor. After a Sewanee basket at the 11:19 mark, junior guard Helen Terry decided it was her time to set the tone. Terry had back to back steals for lay-ups and then on her third consecutive steal Terry set up teammate Anicia Dotson with an easy layup. Sewanee then answered back cutting the score 22 to 10 with nine minutes but Alston then made a huge bucket down low in the paint to kill the Sewanee run.

The Buccaneers faced a run and jump defense from the Tigers as CSU could never fully get set in their half court offense. Understanding the defensive scheme of Sewanee, Coach Goodenough decided to switch her attack from trying to find her big men to spreading the court and swinging the ball to the weak side. Getting her freshmen playing experience is vital to the Buccaneer success this season. Shambreka Jones looked to pose a problem for Sewanee as her size and athleticism dominated the blocks on the offensive end and defensive end. At the half the Buccaneers looked to be sitting comfortable with a 51-12 score. The Buccaneers shot 16.7% from behind the 3-point line and 46.9% from the field. The Buccaneers looked to get more points in the paint and easy transition baskets in the first half.

To start the second half the Buccaneers came out with a 17-5 run as the three balls rained down from all over the floor for CSU. Sewanee continued to press the Buccaneers but breaking the press started to come with ease for CSU as the composed Buccaneers did not crack under the Tigers pressure. A big crowd ohh-ing block by Shambreka Jones got the Bucs right back into the swing of hard defense. With size and speed the Buccaneers were not match for the Tigers. At times the Buccaneers looked to be in a completely different arena than the Tigers but some breakdowns due to being a new team and the first game of the season were going to happen. The ball handling ability of all the Buccaneer guards and forwards got CSU out of any double team or full court pressure.

As the half went on the Buccaneers continued to score at will. Transition points were a big key to the Buccaneers big lead. The hours spent in practice breaking the press has paid huge dividends for the Buccaneers as they seemed to break the press as if they were walking the ball up the court. All players who saw action also got on the score sheet as the Buccaneers were lead by Helen Terry with 15 points from the guard position and Anicia Dotson chimed in with 14 solid points in the paint. The Buccaneers crashed the boards for a total of 44 rebounds and stepped up their defense as they collected and forced Sewanee into 30 turnovers. "We came out with a lot of intensity and we talked about winning the transition battle and that's exactly what we did. We came out focused on our game plan and ready to play. At time we were a little careless with the ball but for our first game I am very pleased," spoke Coach Julie Goodenough. "Next week in our practices we are going to focus on that but how we handled the press was impressive. Also I told our girls that we needed to crash the boards and our stats can show that we did just that. Our season starts next week and I am excited to see how it works out."

Charleston Southern will be in action at home against visiting in state Southern Conference opponent Furman on Friday, November 11th at 7 p.m.