Story Courtesy Georgia Southern sports information
Georgia Southern 73, South Carolina 66
COLUMBIA, SC - Georgia Southern senior Nicole Newton (Dublin, Ga.) scored 13 of her 16 points in the second half, including eight straight in the final two and a half minutes as the Lady Eagles earned their first win of the season, 73-66, over South Carolina Tuesday night at the Colonial Center.
GSU (1-3) snaps a 13-game losing streak to the Gamecocks (2-3), dating back to the 1980-81 season and earn the school’s first win over an SEC school since Nov. 27, 1987.
The Lady Eagles rallied from a 13-point deficit in the first half.
Down by eight (37-29) at halftime, GSU came out firing, scoring the first six points of the half, four by sophomore Shawnda Atwood (Pensacola, Fla.).
South Carolina pushed the lead up to seven, 46-39 at the 11:52 mark, on a three-pointer by Lea Fabbri, but a 7-0 run by the Lady Eagles tied the score. Sophomore Fallon Lee (Englewood, Tenn.) contributed five of those points, capping off the rally with a steal and layup with 9:05 to play.
A three-pointer by senior Lee DuBose (Jefferson, Ga.) put Georgia Southern up for the first time since the opening moments of the game, 49-47, but the lead was short-lived as Stacy Booker responded with a trifecta of her own and USC regained the lead 50-49 with 7:20 to play.
South Carolina eventually went up by three, 54-51, but a three-point play from DuBose knotted the score and back-to-back buckets by freshman Ashley Melson (Newnan, Ga.) gave the Lady Eagles the lead for the final time.
Newton started her scoring run at the 2:23 mark and her three-point play put GSU up by seven with 1:44 to go. She failed to convert another three-point play the next trip down the court after another trey by Booker, but the lead was still six. Booker, who scored 15 of her game-high 20 in the final half, hit yet another three and USC trailed by three, 67-64 with one minute on the clock.
Newton went to the line again, and made one-of-two, but this time Booker couldn’t respond, missing a three-pointer. Freshman Tiffany Brown (Waxhaw, N.C.) grabbed the rebound and hit one of two free throws.
Lauren Simms’ layup with 26 seconds left was USC’s final points of the contest. Atwood and Newton iced the contest at the line and Georgia Southern came away winners.
Brown led four Lady Eagles in double figures with 17, while Newton and DuBose added 16, and 15 respectively. Lee had 12 points.
Both teams struggled to score in the early going as USC led 5-3 after four minutes of play.
Despite a considerable height advantage, the Gamecocks held just a 12-10 rebounding margin in the opening moments, but eventually the frontcourt, all measuring at least six-foot-four, dominated the boards the rest of the way and held a 28-21 advantage at the half.
South Carolina turned up the defensive pressure in the last six minutes, forcing 12 GSU turnovers into 17 easy points. The USC press shut down the Georgia Southern offense and helped open up a 13-point lead.
Brown led all players in scoring at the break with 12 points. DuBose had nine at halftime, accounting for two of the team’s five 3-pointers. Georgia Southern had more three-pointers (5) than two-point buckets (3) in the first 20 minutes.
Story Courtesy Davidson sports information
Davidson 95, Oglethorpe 39
DAVIDSON, NC - Sophomore Honna Housley (Riceville, Tenn.) and freshman Kelly Gassie (Mt. Juliet, Tenn.) poured in career highs of 17 and 16 points respectively, and all nine Wildcats etched their names in the scorer's book as the Davidson women's basketball team picked up its first win of the 2005-06 season, 95-39, over the visiting Oglethorpe Stormy Petrels on Tuesday evening. Davidson moved to 2-1 overall on the season, while Oglethorpe was handed its first loss of the season, falling to 3-1.
It's the largest win for the Wildcats since the 1998-99 season when they defeated Sewanee, 89-41, on Dec. 8. The win tonight also marked the first time Davidson has hit the 90-point mark since the 2001-02 season when it defeated East Tennessee State, 103-88, on Jan. 22.
Junior Jessica Mitchell (Wilkesboro, N.C.) and sophomore Danielle Hemerka (Blackwood, N.J) helped the Wildcats jump out to a 22-3 lead with 11:51 go in the first half by scoring 11 of the 22 points. Hemerka netted seven of those points, including a three-ball, on her way to a game-high 18 points.
Mitchell then pushed the ’Cats advantage out to a 21-point lead, 35-14, at the 3:48 mark when she got a pass from senior Janell Crayton (Atlanta, Ga.) on a back-door screen by Hemerka for a layup. Davidson finished with 32 points in the paint in the first half and went into halftime up 46-14.
Defensively, the Wildcats were just as good in the first half. Davidson forced 20 of Oglethorpe's 30 total turnovers in the half, while the Wildcats pocketed 12 of their 19 steals in the first stanza.
Housley and Gassie combined to score 25 points in the second half and Davidson led by as many as 56 points, while holding Oglethorpe to 29% shooting on its way to the 95-39 win.
Freshman Mercedes Robinson (Baltimore, Md.) gave Davidson four players in double-figures as she had the Wildcats first double-double of the season with career highs of 10 points and 12 rebounds.
After shooting 52% against Wake Forest, Davidson continued its hot-shooting by finishing the evening 41-of-74 for a 55% clip, including hitting 63% of its shots in the second half. The Wildcats gained 56 of their points in the paint and turned Oglethorpe's 30 turnovers into 34 points.
The Stormy Petrels had eight players score a bucket or more, led by Ann Findley's nine points. She was 3-for-6 from behind the arc.
Story Courtesy UNC Greensboro sports information
High Point 65, UNC Greensboro 63, OT
HIGH POINT, NC ? Candyce Sellars converted two free throws in the final 1:32 of overtime to send High Point to a 65-63 victory UNC Greensboro in non-conference women’s basketball action Tuesday night at Millis Athletic Center.
Neither team was able to convert a field goal in the extra session. However, High Point (3-1) was able to drain three free throws to take a 63-60 lead, but UNCG’s KaLeah Latham knocked down a pair from the charity stripe and Meghan Chamberlain tied the score, 63-63, for the ninth and final time of the evening with 1:47 to go. Sellars then went 1-for-2 from the line on two separate occasions to give the Panthers their second straight win.
Junior Irene Otamiri led UNCG (1-3) with 10 points, six rebounds and four steals. Senior Ashley Current had a season-high nine points, while junior Jasmine Byrd had eight points, but was limited to the bench for a majority of the second half with an ankle injury. Latham ripped down a game-high 10 rebounds.
Katie O’Dell, the pre-season Player of the Year in the Big South Conference, scored a game-high 22 points for the Panthers, while Raven Truslow added 19 points.
With UNCG leading 60-58 with less than a minute left in regulation, Truslow converted two free throws with 37 ticks left on the clock to tie the game 60-60 and ultimately send the game into overtime. Before that, UNCG had taken its largest lead of the game, 60-56, on a jumper by Otamiri with 1:37 left in the second half.
Neither team led by more than four points in the entire second half and featured four ties and four lead changes.
Byrd buried a 3-pointer in the opening seconds of the second half to tie the game, 35-35, but O’Dell scored all eight of the Panthers points in the first five minutes of action to give them a 43-39 lead with 13:43 remaining.
In the first half, Truslow drained a jumper at the 9:07 mark to give the Panthers a 17-10 advantage. UNCG showed some resiliency by running off an 11-2 spurt to take its first lead of the night, 21-19, with 5:21 left. Current started the run with a put back layup and Otamiri capped it with a jumper.
The lead was short lived though as Ayonna Thompson drilled the games first 3-pointer moments later to regain the lead, 22-21, in favor of High Point. It was a tight affair from that point on until halftime with the Panthers leading by as many as four points, before going into intermission with a 35-32 lead.
First half scoring leaders included junior Brittany Frazier and senior forward Caroline Blair for the Spartans with six points apiece, while Byrd and Current both chipped in with five points. Truslow paced High Point with 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting, while O’Dell had eight points of her own. The difference in the half may well have come from the free throw line, where UNCG struggled to a 1-for-6 showing from the charity stripe.