Anderson dominates down under vs. AIS

ROB KEYS
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

FAYETTEVILLE -- Celia Anderson was happy to have Katrina Nesby and Kiesha Beard on her team Sunday night.
Anderson, who spent the better part of last week butting heads with Nesby and Beard in practice, took out her frustrations with a game-high 22 points as Arkansas beat the Australian Institute of Sport 94-76 before 1,248 at Walton Arena.
"I've had a horrible past three days in practice and I give the utmost credit to Katrina Nesby and Kiesha Beard because they've pushed me hard the last two or three days," Anderson said. "They basically just kicked my tail and I was embarrassed, there's just no other way to put it. So tonight I just wanted to come out and try my hardest and kind of redeem myself, because if you would've seen me the last few days in practice, you would have never predicted this tonight."
The 22 points would have been a career-high for the senior from Little Rock had Sunday's game not been an exhibition. Anderson scored 19 points in a loss to Memphis at Little Rock last season.
Anderson made 7 of 8 shots from the floor, 8 of 12 free throws and pulled down 4 offensive rebounds, all of which led to points.
Coach Gary Blair inserted Anderson into the lineup with less than eight minutes to play in the first half, allowing her to work against somewhat fatigued defenders. None of them came close to keeping Anderson off the low block, where she did the bulk of her damage.
Eleven points from Anderson and eight from senior guard Wendi Willits helped Arkansas build a 45-40 halftime lead despite AIS shooting 60 percent (18 of 30) from the field.
AIS got a significant amount of its first-half points by penetrating and dishing the ball out to open shooters.
Arkansas tightened its defense in the second half, and also mixed in some zone and pressing defenses. AIS still was able to get open shots, but it had to work harder for them, and that paid off for Arkansas. AIS shot just 33.3 percent (12 of 36) from the field after halftime.

This article was published on November 6, 2000

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