Nov. 23, 2002

Final Stats

JONESBORO, AR - Casie Lowman tied a career-high with 17 points to help Arkansas State defeat Maryland-Eastern Shore 81-64 in a non-conference women's basketball game on Saturday.

Lowman, who also scored 17 against Georgia Tech on December 1, 2001, was 5-of-7 from the field and 6-of-8 from the free throw line while passing for six assists and grabbing three steals. "Casie is so much stronger than she was in the past," said ASU Head Coach Brian Boyer. "I thought she did a good job of attacking the basket."

The two teams combined for 57 turnovers and 57 fouls with three Lady Indians fouling out. The Tribe took advantage of the turnovers, scoring 28 points off UMES miscues. "There was not a lot of rhythm to this game," said Coach Boyer. "Because of the constant fouling, there was never any flow. We've got to do a better job of playing aggressive defense without fouling."

ASU (1-0) held UMES to a 32-percent shooting performance from the field while knocking down 46-percent of its own shots in the victory.

Maryland-Eastern Shore (0-1) out-rebounded the Lady Indians 50-40, including 27 offensive boards that helped the Lady Hawks to 25 second-chance points. "(Coach Dixon) does an awesome job of getting her team to the boards," said Coach Boyer. "It showed tonight, but we've got to resolve that. Too often we were in good position, but we were just ready to jump and rebound it rather than making contact. You can't do that against a big, athletic team."

Amber Abraham pitched in 15 points for the Tribe, going 5-of-8 behind the three-point line. All-America candidate Jolie McKeirnan was held to just 12 points, but the senior did pull down 11 boards, moving her into 6th all-time in rebounds at ASU with 648 for her career. McKeirnan passed Michelle Horton who had 645 rebounds from 1982-85.

Rachel Goodwin paced UMES with 11 points while Tiffany Winkfield and Neferteria Franklin scored 10 points apiece. Paula Tucker had a game-high 13 rebounds.

ASU started the game hot by jumping out to a 24-12 advantage halfway through the first half, but UMES slowly began to chip away at the Lady Indians' lead. Field goals from Tucker, Rene Wallace and Zareena Stephens trimmed the lead to just one before Wallace tied the game at 26-26 by sinking a free throw with 5:05 left in the first period.

The Tribe found its touch again though, putting together a 15-2 run to close out the half. Lowman contributed six points over that stretch to give ASU a 41-28 edge going into the break.

Both teams went back and forth to start the second half until Lowman knocked down a pair of free throws at the 12:44 mark to put ASU up by 19, spurring a 9-3 run and giving the Tribe control of the game. The Lady Indians led by as many as 26, but the Lady Hawks finished strong, connecting on 9-of-10 free throws down the stretch to slice ASU's lead to the final score, 81-64.