Story Courtesy Appalachian State sports information
Georgia Tech 68, Appalachian State 45
ATLANTA, GA - Three Yellow Jackets scored in double digits as the Appalachian State University women’s basketball team fell to Georgia Tech, 68-45, Sunday at the Alexander Memorial Coliseum.
With the loss the Mountaineers drop to 1-2 this season, while the Yellow Jackets improve to a perfect 4-0. ASU forced 30 GT turnovers, while turning the ball over two fewer times.
Georgia Tech out-rebounded Appalachian, 47-30, grabbing 20 of its boards on the offensive end. Both teams struggled from the free throw line, as ASU shot 58.8 percent and Georgia Tech finished the game shooting 57.1 percent from the charity stripe.
Freshman Whitney Ketner (Spartanburg, S.C.) and senior Jocelyn Wyatt (Lawrenceville, Ga.) led the Mountaineers with nine points apiece. Ketner added a career-high five boards to her career-high nine points. Wyatt chipped in two steals.
Sophomore Whitney Tossie (Oviedo, Fla.) had six points and four steals on the day, while freshman Greteya Kelley (Suwanee, Ga.) added six points and three rebounds.
Stephanie Higgs and Kasha Terry led the Yellow Jacket offense with 13 points apiece, while Chioma Nnamaka added 10. Higgs chipped in six rebounds, while Nnamaka tied a game high with seven boards.
Up 14 at halftime, the Yellow Jackets extended their lead to 17 at 39-23 with 16:52 to play. The Mountaineers battled back, but Georgia Tech matched them point-for-point. After an 11-0 run, Georgia Tech took its largest lead of the game at 63-36 (27 points) with 6:55 left to play.
Appalachian outscored the home team, 9-5 in the final six and a half minutes, but it wasn’t enough as Georgia Tech went on to defeat the visitors by 23 points, 68-45.
Georgia Tech took the first possession of the game and quickly jumped out to a 7-0 lead with 16:42 to play in the half. Appalachian got its first points of the game at the 16:09 mark off a jumper by junior Jaime Bennett (Woodstock, Ga.).
With the Mountaineers down eight at 28-20 with just under three minutes to play in the game, the Yellow Jackets went on an 8-2 run to go into the locker room with a 14-point lead at 36-22.
Story Courtesy Western Carolina sports information
Wright State 65, Western Carolina 63
TALLAHASSEE, FL - Missed opportunities were again the story as the Western Carolina Lady Catamounts fell to Wright State, 65-63, Sunday afternoon in the consolation game of the 2005 Florida State Seminole Classic. FSU claimed the tournament title with a 69-56 win over Montana in the championship game at the Tucker Center.
Western (0-4) was led by sophomore guard Chevon Keith with 14 points, adding a game-high nine rebounds. Freshman Lauren Powell scored 13, nailing 3-of-6 from long range. The Asheville, N.C., native averaged 15.5 points per contest in the two games of the Seminole Classic to be the lone Lady Catamount named to the all-tournament team as selected by the coaches and media members in attendance. Rounding out Western's double-digit scorers was sophomore Jessika Johnson with a dozen, recording half of her point total from the charity stripe.
However, it was the free throw line that again proved to be the difference in Western's fourth-consecutive loss. The Lady Catamounts struggled from the line, only connecting on 12-of-21 attempts (57-percent). Conversely, the Raiders became the second-straight opponent to find their way from the stripe against WCU. Wright State entered Sunday afternoon's game averaging 57.9-percent from the line, but chalked up 15-of-20 for 75-percent to ice the win. At one point in the second half, WSU scored nine-straight points from the free throw line, which kept the Raiders in the ball game as during that same stretch they were 0-for-5 from the field.
Western appeared to have found its stride, controlling the opening tip and racing out to a 12-point advantage midway through the first half. The lead hovered around double-digits until the 7:10 mark when the Raiders made a charge to slash the Cats' lead to five, 23-18. But WCU countered with back-to-back buckets by Keith and Powell to again balloon the margin to 10, 28-18. WSU was able to trim the deficit to three, with the Lady Catamounts leading at intermission, 30-27.
After the break, Western again struggled out of the starting blocks, stumbling through a 9-3 Wright State run that transformed the three-point halftime advantage into trailing by three, 36-33. The two squads then traded buckets, with Western regaining the lead, 39-38, with 14:21 to play. However, Wright State mounted a 14-2 run, including the aforementioned nine-point free throw stretch, over the next 3:48 to take its largest lead of 11, 52-41.
Yet, spurred by a fast break lay-up by sophomore Monique Dawson, the Lady Catamounts rallied with a 9-0 spurt of their own, which included treys by Keith and Powell and a trio of charity tosses by Johnson, to tie the game at 52-all with seven minutes to play in regulation. Wright State managed to pull back ahead by four inside of three minutes to play, but junior Erin May converted a Teshymia Tillman pass to trim the deficit to one, 59-58, with a minute showing on the game clock. But missed opportunities allowed WSU to pull back to a five-point lead, but not pull completely away. Keith drained a long 3-pointer with 12 ticks remaining and Powell sank a pair of free throws setting up another wild finish.
Leading by just one, the Raiders' Rhea Mays made the first of two free throws with two seconds left for a two-point advantage. Chevon Keith corralled the miss, but her heave at the buzzer was off target to surrender the final margin, 65-63.
Wright State (2-2) also had three players score in double-figures, led by 14 points from Brittany Whiteside, who was also named to the all-tournament team. Her backcourt teammate, Mays, added 13 points including three, 3-pointers, with forward Whitney Lewis adding 10 points and eight rebounds in the win.