The freshman scored a career high of 29 points

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Dec. 29, 2017) – After returning to Brooks Gym following the holiday, the Bucs got back in action against North Greenville on Friday night. ETSU snapped a four game losing streak with a dominant 90-67 win to improve to 7-8 on the season before heading into conference play.

Inside the Numbers

• Erica Haynes-Overton (Nashville, Tenn.) recorded a new career high of 29 points. She is now in sixth place for ETSU’s single-game scoring and was just one point away from tying Tianna Tarter (Johnson City, Tenn.) who tallied 30 points four times last season. Haynes-Overton also had a team high of eight steals.
• After missing the last four games, Raven Dean (Charlotte, N.C.) had an impressive night in the paint with a team high of 13 rebounds and also pitched in six points.
• Tianna Tarter also scored in double figures with 20 points and seven steals.
• Anajae Stephney (Knoxville, Tenn.) tied her career high of 11 points and also tallied three rebounds.
• Shy Copney (Johnson City, Tenn.) finished with nine points, all coming from three-pointers.
• ETSU out-rebounded North Greenville 52-43 and picked up more steals 16-9.
• ETSU scored 24 points on fast breaks and had 40 points inside the paint.

First Quarter  

• Both teams got out to a slow start before Erica Haynes-Overton took control of the game as she started a 9-0 run.
• North Greenville was unable to score any points for three minutes as the Bucs forced four turnovers.
• Shy Copney’s three-pointer then began another 7-0 run for the Bucs during a one-minute time frame, which gave the Bucs a ten-point lead.
• North Greenville answered with their own 7-0 run to get within four.
• The Bucs scored 12 points in the paint and six off fast breaks.

Second Quarter

• ETSU had a rough start going one from nine in field goals leading to a three-minute scoring drought, but the Bucs maintained their ten-point lead.
• Raven Dean was a rebounding machine with six rebounds in the second quarter.
• Haynes-Overton had back to back steals and went on a solo 4-0 run after finishing her layups.
• ETSU had a 13-point lead heading into the half.

Third Quarter

• With a layup from Britney Snowden (Pensacola, Fla.) and back to back layups by Haynes-Overton, the Bucs went 3-3 in field goals to begin an 11-0 run.
• The Bucs picked up a 26-point lead after forcing six turnovers.
• Tianna Tarter stole the ball and drove to the hoop for a layup in three consecutive plays.
• After a strong start to the third quarter, the Bucs did not make a field goal for the last five minutes of the quarter. Their points came from free throw shots.

Fourth Quarter

• Haynes-Overton swished a three-pointer to pass her career high of 21 points. She then followed that play with a layup. She scored ten points alone in the fourth quarter to finish with a total of 29 points.
• Anajae Stephney scored four points in the fourth quarter to tie her career high of 11 points.
• Shy Copney ended the game with her third three-pointer as ETSU pulled away with the 23-point win.

Next Up

The Bucs will begin conference play when they host Western Carolina on Jan. 4.

Post-Game Quotes

Raven Dean:

On getting the team high of 13 rebounds in her first game back…. “I just told myself I was going to give my best effort. I didn’t really know how I was going to play with it being my first game back. I told my team I was going to give them effort and play hard.”

On heading into conference play next week… “I feel good. Our team has the talent. There’s obviously some things we have to work on still, but that’s not a big deal. I’m sure we’ll get there and I’m really confident in my team.”

On opening up conference play at home… “I think it’s really big. We play better at home. We get a lot of energy from our fans and it’ll be a big boost for us.”

Coach Ezell

Opening statement… “We really challenged them at halftime. We play a little lethargic against teams we don’t think we really need to play hard against. I told them it’s not only disrespectful to the other team, but it’s disrespectful to us. We need to treat everyone like it’s Michigan State or Cincinnati and that’s hard to do when we put the schedule in front of them that we have. I thought they responded well at halftime. I thought Tianna showed a remarkable amount of leadership in the locker room and coming out at half. Erica had a great bounce back. She wasn’t very good against Northern Kentucky and then Raven comes back and gets 13 rebounds in 22 minutes. There were some really good things that we could point out.”

On what she learned in non-conference play… “We’re pretty resilient and we’re pretty tough. We’re pretty good when we get out and pressure and anticipate. We have some thieves amongst us. They are fun to coach. They really are. They care and I think that’s what I like most about them. They care about one another and they care about how they perform and you can do a lot of things when people care.”

“We want to send our best wishes to Julie as she’s recovering from back surgery. It meant a lot from us to go visit her family and for our kids to go see her. We wish Julie our best wishes and we dedicate our game to her.”

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For more information on Buccaneer women’s basketball visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the women’s basketball page.