Women's Basketball Southern Conference

SoCon Women's Basketball from Wednesday, December 8

Western Carolina 75, Wofford 68

With game-high efforts of 18 points and 13 rebounds for her first double-double of the season, junior Teyawna Hardy paced the Western Carolina women's basketball team to a 75-68 triumph over host Wofford Wednesday afternoon in the Benjamin Johnson Arena. Hardy came off the bench and hit 7-of-14 attempts from the field and was a perfect 3-of-3 from the foul line while adding a team-high two steals in 23 minutes for the Lady Catamounts.

Teammate Jennifer Gardner nearly posted a double-double of her own with eight points and 10 boards. Lori Tanner, the team's leading scorer entering the contest with a 10.6 ppg average, chipped in nine points.

Junior forward Nakia Mister (Irmo, S.C.) put the Terriers ahead early scoring the first six points of the game, pushing the Wofford lead to 6-0 at the 18:15 mark. Western Carolina struck back with an 10-2 run to go up, 10-8 at 14:43, before a Ricaye Harris (Muncie, Ind.) nailed a 3-pointer to give the Terriers the lead again at 11-10 with 14:14 to play in the opening stanza. Keyed by six points from freshman Kelsi Koenig (Mandeville, La.), Wofford would again open up the lead to 21-15 at the 9:40 mark. However, the Lady Catamounts slowly chipped away at the lead and then took a 30-29 edge into the intermission on a layup by Ashley Pellom with 33 seconds remaining.

In the second half, Wofford and Western would keep the game close through the first 10 minutes with the largest lead being a six-point advantage by the Lady Catamounts, 51-45, following a Tanner field goal. Following a Mary Jo Yee (Charlotte, N.C.) trey, Jenny Weurding (Atlanta, Ga.) knocked down a pair of free throws to bring Wofford within one, 51-50, at 10:14. Again the teams would keep it close before a 5-0 WCU run starting at the 2:20 mark opened up the edge that the visitors would not relinquish. Pellom gave the Lady Catamounts their largest lead of the game, 73-62, with 1:18 remaining. Mister provided the final tallies of the contest on a made jump with 19 seconds left.

Sophomore guard K.C. Correll (Gastonia, N.C.) led all Terriers with a season-high 18 points on 8-of-12 shooting, including a pair of 3-pointers. Harris added 15 while Mister chipped in with 10.

Weurding led Wofford with 10 rebounds, including seven defensive caroms and six blocks. The SoCon's leading shot blocker raised her season tally to 25, ahead of her pace from a year ago when she set the Terriers' single-season record with 62. The 25 blocks also are more than nine of the other 10 teams in the league.

Wofford drops to 2-6 overall and 0-2 in SoCon play with the loss. The Lady Catamounts improve to 5-3 overall and 1-1 in the league.

The Terriers will hit the road for Asheville, N.C., for a 2 p.m. Saturday contest against Big South foe UNC Asheville. Western Carolina will also play again Saturday when it hosts Furman at 5 p.m.