Story Courtesy of UNCG Sports Information

UNC Greensboro 70, Wake Forest 64

WINSTON-SALEM, NC ? UNC Greensboro overcame a miserable shooting night only to see the Spartans grab a 70-64 victory over in-state rival Wake Forest Wednesday night in non-conference women’s basketball action at Lawrence Joel Coliseum.

Despite a cold shooting performance that mirrored the near-freezing temperatures outside, UNCG (4-3) picked up its third straight victory of the season, with wins over the likes of Big East foe West Virginia and the ACC’s Demon Deacons. The win squares the all-time head-to-head record at 6-6, but it was the first win for UNCG over Wake since the 1977-78 season.

Sophomore guard Kristen Boone made her first start of the season and scored a UNCG-high 16 points and had four steals. Junior forward Irene Otamiri added 15 points, all in the second half, while junior KaLeah Latham scored 13 points.

Liz Strunk went for a game-high 23 points to lead Wake Forest (3-3). Cotelia Bond-Young, the ACC’s second-leading scorer had 17 points, while Deirdre Naughton added 12 points for the Demon Deacons.

UNCG opened the second half by scoring nine of the first 11 points to take its largest lead to that point, 41-31, with 15:51 to go. The Spartans were able to hold their lead until Naughton buried a 3-pointer to give Wake Forest a 49-48 lead with 6:45 remaining, but the resilient Spartans converted four straight buckets to take a 56-49 lead with 4:44 to go.

Wake Forest never got any closer than five points, 56-51, at the 4:04 mark. UNCG was able to open its lead to as many as 12 points, 70-58, on a layup by Otamiri in the closing seconds.

UNCG shot a season-low 33.3 percent (22-for-66) from the field. Wake was not much better as they converted at a 39.1 percent (25-for-64) clip. UNCG held a 48-44 advantage on the boards and came up with 11 steals.

Back-to-back buckets by senior center Caroline Blair gave UNCG a 9-7 lead into the first media timeout of the opening half. Strunk would then put Wake up 15-13 on a trey at the 10:25 mark, but UNCG ran off seven straight points to take a 20-15 lead at 9:11. Boone began the spurt with her first 3-pointer of the season and Jasmine Dixon capped it with a pair from the free throw line.

Wake put together a 7-0 run of its own to grab a brief 22-20 advantage, but UNCG answered back with a 10-2 spurt, which included consecutive treys by Byrd and Latham, to take its largest lead of the half, 30-24, with 2:52 left. Five points in a row by the Demon Deacons got the home team to within one, 30-29, but Dixon drained two free throws to send the Spartans into halftime with a 32-29 advantage.

Strunk single handedly paced Wake in the first half with 13 points and eight rebounds as she was the only Demon Deacon to score more than four points or grab more than three rebounds. UNCG was a perfect 10-for-10 from the charity stripe in the opening 20 minutes of play and was led by Latham and Byrd’s nine and eight points respectively.

Story Courtesy of Chattanooga Sports Information

Chattanooga 84, UNC Asheville 59

ASHEVILLE, NC - Brooke Hand led four Lady Mocs in double-digits as Chattanooga extended its win streak to five games with an 84-59 win over UNC Asheville at the Justice Center Wednesday night.

“We have a lot of respect for Asheville,” Lady Mocs Head Coach Wes Moore said. “We were fortunate in that we shot the heck out of the ball in the first half in particular. When you do that, you take the pressure off the defense.”

Hand scored all of her game-high 19 points in the first half making 5-of-6 from beyond the arc. Katasha Brown went 2-for-4 from the 3-point line and had 14 points. She moved into 12th place on the UTC all-time scoring list with 1,180 career points.

Sophomore Alex Anderson had a double-double with 14 points and a game-high 10 boards and added one more block to raise her team-leading total to 17. Nicole Mattison tossed in 11 for UTC and had 18 boards and four steals.

Chattanooga went on a 17-2 run hitting five consecutive 3-pointers over a three minute period to lead 27-10 with 10:50 to play in the first half. The Lady Mocs pushed their lead to 24 at the half leading 50-26. UTC’s largest lead was 30 points on a layup by Mattison at 5:55 to make it 77-47.

The Bulldogs, 5-2, were undefeated at home this season and had back-to-back wins over the SoCon before Chattanooga came to town.

“This was a good win for us,” Moore said. “Asheville has done a bang up job against the Southern Conference the last couple of years and we wanted to get this one for the league.”

The Lady Mocs, 6-3, scored 21 points on 25 turnovers and shot better than 50 percent for the sixth time this season. Chattanooga went 35-of-67 from the floor and had 9 treys , seven in the first half. The rebounding battle was even at 31-31.

Ashton Barton scored a team-high 16 points to lead UNCA and Kristal Hood tossed in 13 points and grabbed five boards. Also in double figures for the Bulldogs was Katie Baldwin off the bench with 11. Asheville shot 46.8 percent from the field making 22-of-47.

The Lady Mocs will travel to Elon for its first SoCon road game this season. Chattanooga is 1-0 in league play thus far with a win over Wofford at McKenzie.

“Elon last year gave us an unbelievable game over there last year,” Moore said. “In the last two minutes we gained a small lead over them and pulled out a win. They lost an assistant coach (Ann Lashly) to cancer earlier this year and they are playing their hearts out over there.”