Nov. 1, 2000
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Purdue women's basketball team opened its exhibition season with a 119-44 victory over Finland's Tapiolan Honka team on Wednesday night in Mackey Arena. The 119 points are the second most scored by Purdue in an exhibition game, just one shy of the record 120 tallied against Moldavia on Nov. 17, 1993. It is the largest margin of victory by Purdue in any game in the 26-year history of the program.
"We know we'll face tougher competition in the Big Ten and in our non-conference schedule, and it's my job to stress that to my players," Purdue coach Kristy Curry said. "We're going to enjoy this because a lot of positive things happened on the floor tonight. But we need to realize that not every night is going to be like this. This is part of a learning process, and we still have a lot of progress to make."
Purdue got out of the gates quickly and led 9-0 less than three minutes into the contest. It took Tapiolan Honka five minutes to score, and they did not score again for the next 10 minutes. During that time, the Boilermakers went on a 30-0 run to build a 39-2 lead. The score at halftime was 55-12 in favor of Purdue.
It was more of the same in the second half, as the Boilermakers built their lead to 61 points on a three-pointer by freshman Shereka Wright with 14:09 remaining. The lead continued to grow as time wound down, finally settling at 75 after a buzzer-beater by Erika Valek.
Valek, a rookie out of Lubbock, Texas, got the starting nod at the point guard position and did not disappoint. She tied for the team lead in points with 19, hitting 8-for-12 from the field and 3-for-4 from three-point range. She also dished out three assists and picked off three steals in 23 minutes.
"We practiced pretty hard for this game, so we were ready to show what we had," Valek said.
Sophomore Mary Jo Noon scored 19 points also, shooting 9-for-10 from the field and 1-for-1 from the free throw line.
Freshman Cherrise Graham gave a spark off the bench, scoring 16 points with five rebounds and four assists. Fellow rookie Shalicia Hurns also made a quick impact, hauling in 11 rebounds (nine in the first half), to go along with five steals and three assists.
"I think we were just anxious tonight-really ready to get out and play," Hurns said. "For the six freshmen, I'm pretty sure we're all excited to have gotten the chance to play in our first game. Our whole team played together and played well."
Other double-figure scorers for the Boilermakers were senior Camille Cooper (18) and Wright (14).
Wright and senior Katie Douglas led Purdue with five assists apiece.
The Boilermakers shot 57 percent from the field (49-for-86) and held the Finnish team to 30.4 percent shooting (17-for-56). Purdue went 8-for-22 from three-point range, with five different players connecting. The Boilermakers shot 86.7 percent (13-for-15) from the free throw line.
Purdue outrebounded Tapiolan Honka 55 to 24, and handed out 31 assists to their nine.
All 13 Purdue players scored.
The Boilermakers finish their exhibition season on Sunday when they host the Mexican National Team in Mackey Arena. Tipoff is slated for 2 p.m.
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