Miles opened its regular season with two convincing wins in the Lady Bears Tip-Off Classic. Miles earned a 74-46 win over Oakwood on Friday afternoon before demolishing Carver 83-25 on Saturday morning. The Lady Bears held their opponents to 22 percent shooting from the field, forced 75 total turnovers and dominated the boards by an average of 24.5 per game. For the tournament,
Camryn London (22 points),
Markisha Body (12 points, seven rebounds) and
Imani Williams (10 points, 15 rebounds, four blocks and four steals) were the big performers for the Lady Bears.
Miles 74, Oakwood 46
Miles opened up a double-digit lead midway through the first quarter but it was a big second quarter run that broke the contest open. A basket by Jayda Caldwell drew the Ambassadors to within six points. But for the next six minutes, Oakwood would not make another basket from the field.
Miles would outscore Oakwood 21-4 during that field goal drought. Six different Lady Bears would score during that stretch led by London, who scored nine of her game-high 23 points during that span. Miles went into the break leading 45-28 and back-to-back buckets by
Tahlor Sutton (six points, three steals) less than four minutes into the third quarter put the lead beyond 20 points and the Ambassadors would never get closer.
In the fourth quarter, Miles used its defensive might to completely stifle Oakwood. The Ambassadors got a basket from Delia Allen with 6:17 left in the contest. It would be the only field goal the Lady Bears would allow in the period. Miles held Oakwood to 1-of-16 shooting and outrebounded its opponents 21-10 in the quarter and 57-37 for the game.
Caldwell (11 points) and Keiah Dancy (nine points, eight rebounds) paced Oakwood. Williams (13 points, 16 rebounds, six bloacks, six steals) and Body (12 points, seven rebounds) had big efforts for Miles.
Miles 83, Carver 25
Miles forced 45 turnovers and turned them into 48 points while not allowing the Cougars to score more than eight points in any quarter to post a dominant victory.
London scored five of Miles' first nine points before Carver even got on the board, which happened with 4:57 left in the opening period. A layup by Sutton (six points, five assists, five steals) in the closing minute of the quarter gave the Lady Bears a 17-7 advantage and the Cougars never got any closer.
Deresia Randle scored four points as Miles scored the final 11 points of the second quarter to take a 34-11 lead into halftime.
The second half was far worse for the Cougars. Miles did not allow a single point over the first five minutes of the period and put an exclamation point on a 21-0 run to start the second half when a steal by
Je'Keria Strickland (five points) turned into a fastbreak bucket by Body (12 points, seven rebounds) and 55-11 lead. The Lady Bears led by 53 points at the end of the third quarter and saw it swell as high as 59 points on a second consecutive bucket by Randle (10 points, nine rebounds) made it 81-22 with 2:52 remaining.
Fatima Bakayoko had nine points and six rebounds to lead Carver. London had a game-high 21 points, Williams had seven points and 14 rebounds, and
Nadia Cathey added seven points, seven assists, five rebounds and three steals for Miles.
UP NEXT
Miles goes on the road to play at Oakwood on Thursday. Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m.
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