Lady Bears Knocked Out in First Round of Regional; Ends Season 28-3

Augusta State University junior Brandi Hollingsworth picked a perfect night to experience her best collegiate shooting performance, finishing with a career-high 24 points to lead the eighth-seeded Lady Jaguars to an 81-64 upset victory over top-seed Shaw University in the opening round of the 2004 NCAA Division II Women’s Basketball South Atlantic Regional Tournament hosted by Shaw University at Spaulding Gymnasium. 

Hollingsworth, a 5-6 guard out of Carmel, Indiana, made 6-of-8 from the field, including 5-of-6 from three-point range, and 7-of-8 from the free throw line. She recorded 14 points before intermission in just nine minutes of action, hitting all five field goals, four of which were triples.

“Wow!” said Augusta State head coach Greg Wilson to open the post-game press conference. “I just thought it was the best job this year of executing the game plan.”

Wilson was also quick to praise the sharp-shooting Hollingsworth. “The nice thing about Brandi is she’s an accurate shooter, but also fearless,” he said. “These are the kind of situations she thrives in.  She has the green light, whether it’s in transition or coming off the first pass.”

As a team, Augusta State blistered the nets from the charity stripe, connecting on 27-of-32 free throws (84.4 percent). On the other side of the hardwood, Shaw shot a miserable 9-for-20 (45.0 percent) from the foul line, including 3-for-11 in the first half.

The visitors quickly quieted the capacity crowd of 1,100 by jumping out to a 21-9 advantage after a pair of free throws by Alshaa’ Hodges at 11:44. ASU’s lead grew to as much as 16 points (46-30 at 1:23) before taking a 46-32 cushion at the half.

Shaw scored seven unanswered points midway through the second stanza to cut the deficit to 60-54 with 9:23 left to play, but that was as close as the Lady Bears would get.

The Lady Jaguars went on a 21-6 tear to enjoy their largest lead of the night when Hodges sank two more free throws at 1:19 to make the score 81-60.

Senior point guard Ernesia Wideman tallied 15 points and a game-high eight assists for Augusta State (22-7), while Hodges finished with 12 points and six helpers. Senior forward Shundra Johnson contributed six points, a team-best 11 rebounds, three blocked shots and two steals for the Lady Jaguars.

Shaw (28-3) received double-figure scoring efforts from four Lady Bears, including Jessica Hawkins (13), Kiarsha Curtis (11), Joy Hairston (10) and Latasha Shipman (10). Chrystal Baptist recorded nine points, 11 rebounds and three blocks in the loss.

“I think the layoff hurt us a little bit, because offensively we just couldn’t get anything going,” said Shaw head coach Jacques Curtis. “They were quick and made us not be able to go with our big lineup of Shipman, Baptist and (Margiella) Mobley because it would cause a problem with their speed.”

Augusta State has handed Shaw, the fourth-ranked team in the nation, two of its three losses on the season, the second snapping the Lady Bears’ 20-game win streak.

“We were trying to prove everybody wrong,” said ASU’s Wideman. “Everybody thought we were going to come here, lose, and go home. But we showed them tonight.”