PEMBROKE — Being a junior college transfer at a new program, The University of North Carolina at Pembroke women’s basketball coach John Haskins understands the struggles that junior guard ShaNiya Lester has went through this season.
Haskins has been in the same situation as a player, and on Saturday he saw Lester put on a showing at home against Young Harris that he remembers seeing while recruiting her.
“It’s just a learning curve for junior college kids,” Haskins said. “Hopefully now she has some confidence. She plays extremely hard and is a very physical player. I told her in the locker room that looked like the girl we recruited because she had struggled a little bit. Hopefully, this will give her a shot in the arm going forward.”
Lester posted a season-high 14 points in 21 minutes as the Lady Braves opened Peach Belt Conference play with a 72-53 win over Young Harris.
Amassing six points in her first four games for UNCP (2-3, 1-0 PBC) after transferring in from Catawba Valley Community College, Lester passed her season total just with her second-quarter scoring total alone.
The Lady Braves took a 37-27 halftime lead after ShaNiya Lester scored seven points in four minutes off the bench in the second period. In conjunction with her scoring, Lester also was one of three Lady Braves that led the team with five rebounds, and added three assists to one turnover.
With Lester adding her play off the bench, UNCP benefited from posting its second-best 3-point shooting percentage outing of 44 percent, while connecting on a season-best 11 triples.
“We executed a little better,” Haskins said. “We ran some stuff and started hitting more 3s, and we also started attacking more going downhill to force some help.
“I think we are a very adequate shooting team when we are shooting it well.”
The early shooting helped the Lady Braves, taking an early lead over Young Harris (1-5, 0-1 PBC) that they never relinquished. Sophomore Melanie Horne drilled three consecutive triples to close out the first quarter to give UNCP a 24-12 lead over the Mountain Lions after the first quarter.
Horne scored a game-best and career-high 19 points on six 3-pointers.
On the defensive side of the ball, UNCP forced 18 turnovers and turned that into 23 points, a trend Haskins mentioned before the season would have to happen for the Lady Braves to be successful with a smaller lineup. In the first half, UNCP forced 10 Young Harris turnovers and manufactured 14 points off the miscues, while keeping its turnovers to five in the first 20 minutes.
“I thought that was one thing we did well was gap steals,” Haskins said. “The other thing was play some in transition and we wanted to do that.”
Young Harris’ Pamela Diokpara had 12 points and Dee Dee McLane added 11 points.
The Lady Braves travel to Chowan on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.
