RALEIGH, N.C. — The Shaw University Lady Bears switched from a 2-3 zone to a man defense and it paid dividends for them as they defeated Virginia Union 80-50 in a CIAA game played on Thursday night at C.C. Spaulding Gymnasium.

As a result of the defensive switch, the Lady Bears were able to pull away on a 20-4 first half run. The Lady Bears continued their defensive pressure as they limited the Lady Panthers to just 23 points in the second half.

Shaw improves to 11-2 overall and move to 3-1 in the CIAA, marking their third straight conference victory. Virginia Union falls to 5-7 overall and 2-2 in the conference.

"Once we switched from the 2-3 zone to the man, we turned up our intensity," said Shaw assistant coach Jonas Richard. "We were able to get after it a lot more and we got a little bit more aggressive on the defensive end and that catapulted us to that lead."

Once the Lady Bears turned up the intensity, the shots just stopped falling for Virginia Union. The Lady Bears limited the Lady Panthers to just 33.3 percent shooting for the game (22 of 66 from the floor). In the second half, Virginia Union was 10 of 36 from the floor for 27.8 percent. The Lady Panthers were just one of 15 from beyond the three-point arc (including an 0-for-7 mark in the second half), for a 6.7 percentage.

Shaw was led by a trio of players with double digits as Taylor Dalrymple led all scorers with 18 points off the bench. Kearah Jeffreys and Crystal Harris had 14 points apiece for the Lady Bears. Harris came one rebound shy of a double-double, snagging down nine in the victory.

As their stingy defense limited the Lady Panthers to several missed buckets, the Lady Bears were able to take advantage of the miscues on the offensive end. As a team, Shaw shot 28 of 64 from the floor for 43.8 percent. The Lady Bears were 9 of 21 (42.9 percent) from beyond the arc with Jeffreys draining four of them.

"We just had to find our rhythm out there," said Richard. "Once we got our rhythm and started playing harder and exerting a little more energy on the defensive end, that pretty much sparked the offense.  Once we got synchronized on the defensive side, we were able to get some easy baskets offensively."

Richard continued, "We were surprisingly patient on the offensive end tonight. I thought early on, we were patient and we worked the ball. We got some inside play and then we got some fast break baskets, so that was pretty good."

In the first half, Shaw quickly got off to a quick 5-0 lead with 18:42 remaining in the first half thanks to a jumper in the paint by Gordon and one of four three-point buckets by Jeffreys. 

At the 17:31 mark, Sequoyah Griffin scored a layup to put the Lady Bears up 7-2. The Lady Bears watched as Virginia Union responded with a 10-0 run to build a 12-7 lead with 13:54 remaining in the first half.

At the 12:10 mark, the Lady Bears regained the lead thanks to a tip-in by Crystal Harris, which gave Shaw a 13-12 cushion. However, the Lady Panthers responded with a 5-0 run to pull ahead 17-13. Shaw would get as close as two (17-15 with 10:39 left), but couldn't cut into the lead until the latter stages of the first half.

With 7:28 remaining in the first half, the Lady Panthers held a 23-18 lead thanks to a bucket from Melyce Brown. After the media timeout, the Lady Bears made the defensive switch and that's when they found their offensive rhythm.

Once the Lady Bears found their groove offensively, they closed out the remainder of the period on a 20-4 run, highlighted by five straight points from newcomer Chelsey Pinkstaff, which gave them a 38-27 lead at halftime.

The points by Pinkstaff were the first of her Shaw career. She buried a three-pointer with 1:27 remaining in the frame to give Shaw a 26-25 advantage. She scored again with 47 ticks remaining to give Shaw the 11-point lead at the half, which was their largest lead of the period.

In the first half, Shaw shot 15 of 37 from the floor for a 40.5 percent rate. Virginia Union shot 12 of 30 from the floor for a 40.0 rate. The Lady Panthers were 1 of 8 from beyond the arc for 12.5 percent while the Lady Bears hit 3 of 12 from three-point land for 25 percent.

The offensive flow carried over into the second half as the Lady Bears opened on a 24-5 run to build a 30-point lead, capped off with a layup from Dalrymple to make it 62-32 with 11:14 remaining in the game.

After a bucket by Virginia Union's Danielle Ferguson on the other end, Pinkstaff buried a three-pointer to extend Shaw's lead to 31 with 9:41 left. Pinkstaff, who quickly emerged as a crowd favorite with her quick scoring ability in that first half, finished with eight points in her C.C. Spaulding Gymnasium debut.

The Lady Bears took a 34-point lead, which was their largest of the contest, at the 7:20 mark of the second half. After Pinkstaff snagged down a defensive rebound off a missed jumper from Virginia Union's Denesha Tatum, Diamond Mitchell found Dalrymple under the basket for the easy layup to give the Lady Bears a 72-38 lead.

The closest Virginia Union would get for the remainder of the game was 28 after Ashle Freeman's jumper with 5:10 remaining cut Shaw's lead to 72-44. Freeman's bucket was part of a late 6-0 run by the Lady Panthers. 

Exactly three minutes later, Ronika Ransford, who was the recipient of a nice pass from Griffin, scored the final points of the game for the Lady Bears, who led 80-47.

A late tip-in and a successful free throw by Virginia Union's Parress Davis with 1:47 left were the final points of the contest.  Neither team could find the bucket in those final 107 seconds, with Shaw missing three field goal attempts and Union missing six of their own.

Freeman led the Lady Panthers with 16 points. Adrianna Allen finished with a double-double, scoring 13 points and pulling down 10 rebounds in the loss.

The Lady Bears, who have been on the road since December, will now remain home for the next four games. Shaw will host Bowie State on Saturday afternoon. Tipoff is scheduled for 2:00 p.m.

"It feels good to be back at home," said Richard. "We love this environment and the energy that we get from our fans. It's a true home court advantage and we're glad to be back in front of our crowd."