Game Notes | @GoCamelsWBB | Tournament Page
BUIES CREEK, N.C. – The Campbell women's basketball team earned the No. 5 seed in the VisitMyrtleBeach.com Big South Championships and will face No. 4 High Point on Friday at 6 p.m. inside the HTC Center in Conway, S.C.
Fans can follow the action with links on the schedule page to live stats, free audio and video. The video broadcast is apart of the Big South Network. In-game updates can be access by following @GoCamelsWBB on Twitter.
Campbell has posted a 19-10 overall and 11-7 mark during the campaign and faces High Point for the second-straight game after falling to it in the regular season finale on the road, 79-57. The Lady Camels did beat the Panthers on their home floor on Jan. 12 by a 79-76 margin.
This is the third time in school history that the Lady Camels play the same team in the last regular season and first tournament game. Last time it occurred was in 2007 when Campbell fell at Gardner-Webb, 68-53, and the Bulldogs took the A-Sun Quarterfinal matchup, 76-63. The Lady Camels also faced Charleston Southern at home in 1992 with a 71-51 victory and then secured a 76-63 win in the Big South Quarterfinal.
The team is one victory away from securing its first 20-win campaign since 2000-01 and the seventh in program history.
Campbell has an overall 20-23 record in Division I postseason contests all under the guidance of head coach Wanda Watkins, who has 497 career victories. The lone NCAA appearance for the program was in 2000 after capturing the A-Sun Tournament title. Campbell also won the 1988 Big South Tournament before the league was granted an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Senior guard Tonisha Baker (High Point, N.C.) and sophomore forward Kiera Gaines (Mechanicsville, Va.) were selected to the Big South All-Conference team as voted upon by the league's coaches and media. Baker earned a berth on the first team, while Gaines was given a nod on the second team as Campbell joined Liberty and Winthrop with two members each on the two five-player teams.
Baker averages 14.3 points and 5.4 rebounds per game, but has been instrumental, defensively, going up against the opponent's top guard. She has tallied a career-best 93 steals, ranking fifth in program history and needs to reach 96 to move into the top 10 of the Big South single-season record book.
The biggest contributor for Campbell in the post has been Gaines averaging 11.2 points and 7.4 rebounds during the campaign. She has moved up the program's single-season blocks list to 32, two away from passing Jennifer Martin's total in 2005 of 33.
The Lady Camels pace the Big South in Assists (16.1), Steals (12.0) and Assist/Turnover Ratio (0.9).
High Point has controlled the all-time series with a 19-9 mark dating back to 1973. The Lady Camels are tough on their home court, posting a 7-6 record, but are just 1-10 on the road and 1-2 at neutral sites.
The Panthers took the first five meetings and won 11 of the 13 previous matchups. Campbell has taken the past two meetings in the series on its home court.
The Camels defeated High Point in an NAIA District 26 Tournament game on Feb. 25, 1986, 103-71. The most-recent neutral court matchup went to the Panthers, 70-53, in Boca Raton, Fla. on Dec. 30, 2006. HPU took a 55-42 win in the 1978 State Tournament during the first varsity season for Campbell.
The winner of the contests between Campbell and High Point plays again on Saturday at 8 p.m. The Big South Championship game is slated for 5 p.m. on Sunday. Both the semifinals and finals are broadcasted on ESPN3.
