Cinite, Vrancheva lift FIU over Virginia Tech

Friday, November 29, 2002

Cinite, Vrancheva lift FIU over Virginia Tech

photo by Geoff Anderson
Cormisha Cotton goes high over a Virginia Tech defender for two of her 15 points Friday as the Golden Panthers beat Tech, 79-70, in the opening round of the FIU/Herald Thanksgiving Classic. FIU moves on to the championship game Saturday at 5:00 p.m. against No. 3-ranked LSU, an 87-50 winner over Washington State. Listen to all the action live over WAXY 790 AM and WRGP 88.1 FM radio, then stay tuned for the men at Princeton on WAXY.

ace Cinite and Ivelina Vrancheva each posted double-doubles to lead Florida International past Virginia Tech, 79-70, Friday night in the first round of the FIU/Herald Thanksgiving Classic at Golden Panther Arena.

Cinite scored a career-high 19 points on 7-of-9 shooting from the field to go along with a perfect 4-for-4 mark from the charity stripe She also pulled down a career-best 10 rebounds for her first double-double as a Golden Panther.

Vrancheva dished out 10 assists to go along with 10 points. It was her fifth career double-double and her first since Jan. 25, 2001 vs. Arkansas-Little Rock when she had 17 points and 10 assists.

FIU opened the game with a 13-4 run in the first 7:48 sparked by five points from Mandy Shafer. Shafer would go on to nail all three of her three-point attempts in the first period as the Golden Panthers went into the locker room with a 29-22 advantage at halftime.

The Hokies battled back in the early minutes of the second half, reeling off a 13-4 run of its own to give Tech its only lead of the game, 35-33, with 15:56 remaining.

From that point on, FIU dominated the Hokies on the inside, scoring 34 of its 50 second half points in the post.

FIU would lead by as much as 14 points with 2:03 left in the contest before closing out the game by a 9-point margin.

Six Golden Panthers totalled double-figures in scoring including Cinite, Vrancheva, Shafer (11), Cormisha Cotton (15), Anita Heller (10) and Sylvia Mesa (10).

With the win, FIU improves to 2-1 on the year while Tech moves to 1-1.

The Golden Panthers will play LSU, 87-50 winners over Washington State, for the tournament title Saturday night at 5:00 p.m. The Hokies will square off with the Cougars at 7:00 p.m. tomorrow.