shaw secures first bid to championship circle
Lady Bears Blow Past Lady Broncos With Fiery First Half   

February 29, 2008 – charlotte, NC – The first seeded Shaw University Lady Bears fired off for 51 first half points en route to an 87 – 74 defeat of fifth seeded Fayetteville State University Lady Broncos in the Semifinals. The victory locked Shaw in as the first team to compete for the nationally televised CIAA Championship.

The Lady Bears jumped on FSU early to take a 6 – 0 lead and they never looked back. In the next six minutes, Shaw’s offensive status reached its boiling point as they scurried on a 14 – 3 scoring run to trot out in the forefront 20 – 3 with 14:47 left in the first half. Shaw shot 40.4% (19 of 47) from the field and 80.0% (12 of 15) from the free throw line. More importantly, Shaw’s stingy defense greatly flustered FSU as they sunk just six of their 31 shot attempts (19.4%).  Junior point guard #2 Jessica Davis went four-of-six from the field and two-of-three from the free throw line to stand as the only offensive producer to establish double digits with 10 points at the intermission. The Lady Bears dominated on both sides of the court as their largest lead stood at 25 points, 50 – 25, with 50 seconds left in the half after sophomore guard #5 Jan’el Baxter made a lay-up. Shaw held a 24 point lead, 51 – 27, at the half.

Shaw looked to continue their offensive charge towards triumph as of their 51 total points in the first half; 32 points were post productions points as 30 points were poured in by non-starters. Shaw started off doing just that as they stomped to a commanding 32 point lead, 66 – 34, at the 16:40 mark after junior guard #33 Celanese Bozeman buried her third three-pointer. However, the Lady Broncos soon reversed their belly-up position.  As the Lady Bears field goal shooting percentage slipped to 31.3% (10 of 32), FSU performed CPR on their offense to configure a much improved 46.2% (18 of 39). The Lady Broncos seemed to mock Shaw’s offensive strategy with their persistent penetration for post production. Shaw still played “up close and personal” defense, but somehow, someway; FSU tallied 28 points in the paint and 17 points off turnovers. The Lady Broncos re-sized the once immeasurable amount of space that existed between them and the Lady Bears to 10 points at 9:08. Nevertheless, the Lady Bears quickly took a firmer grasp on their first half focus to get back on their intended track to lead by 19 points late in the second half.

Leading in scoring for the Lady Bears was junior shooting guard #33 Celanese Bozeman as she shot 50.0% (10 of 20) from the field to total a game-high 27 points. Providing additional scoring was junior point guard #2 Jessica Davis with 14 points. Shaw had two defensive queens in rebounding as senior forward/center #34 Nicky Souter collected a game-high 12 rebounds and freshman point guard #11 Shana Andrus tallied 11 rebounds.

Hampton, VA native Bozeman was honored as Food Lion’s MVP of the game for Shaw University Lady Bears.