Friday, January 30, 2009

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (Jan. 30, 2009) - After playing a 40-minute physical contest on Thursday night at Jacksonville, the Lady Bucs hope to have enough gas in the tank on Saturday afternoon when ETSU faces a gritty North Florida squad. Tip is set for 2 p.m. inside UNF Arena.

The Lady Bucs, who have built an impressive 10-game conference winning streak, have also won five straight and 11 of their last 13.

ETSU (12-7, 10-1) picked up an important road win on Thursday after knocking off Jacksonville, 65-54, inside Swisher gym. Once again junior TaRonda Wiles (Danville, Va.) was a scoring machine, as she finished 11-for-21 and netted a game-high 22 points. In her last three games, Wiles has scored 72 points and is averaging 24 points per game. In addition, the Danville, Va. native has enjoyed a stellar month of January, as she is averaging 18.8 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 2.5 assists in 32.3 minutes. After this surge, Wiles has taken over the A-Sun scoring lead (16.3ppg) and she has posted a streak of 11 straight games in scoring double figures.

North Florida (4-16, 3-8) is coming off a 74-64 win over USC Upstate on Thursday night. Sophomore guard Juliemay Syquio had an outstanding effort in the 28 minutes play. Syquio finished with 13 points, six rebounds, seven assists and seven steals; while guard Brittany Kirkland led the Ospreys with 16 points. Like Syquio, Kirkland also tallied seven assists.

After losing 12 in a row the Ospreys have won two of their last three games. Also, the 74 points put on the Spartans Thursday night marked a season high. As a team, UNF is only scoring 49 points per game and the Ospreys are giving up 62 per contest.

The Lady Bucs are 6-0 lifetime against UNF - including a 56-42 Lady Buccaneer win back on Jan. 5 in Johnson City. Wiles and Siarre Evans (Griffin, Ga.) paced the Lady Bucs, with Wiles pouring in 14 points and Evans chipping in with 13. As a team, ETSU forced UNF into 29 turnovers and scored 20 points off those miscues. ETSU held UNF without a 3-point field goal (0-for-5) and the Lady Bucs outscored the Ospreys, 24-12, in the paint.

Fans unable to make the trip over to the Sunshine State can hear all the action as "Voice of the Lady Bucs" Don Helman will be courtside calling the play-by-play on WKPT-AM 1590 in Johnson City, WKPT-AM 1400 in Kingsport and WKPT-AM 1490 in Bristol. Additionally, WKPT's FM translators in Johnson City (97.7), Kingsport (94.3), and Bristol (97.9) will also air Lady Buccaneer games.

In addition the game will be aired live on ASun.TV and live stats will be available by visiting www.UNFOspreys.com.  

For more information on Lady Buccaneer basketball, visit www.ETSUBucs.com.