Story Courtesy UNC Greensboro sports information
College of Charleston 70, UNC Greensboro 67 (OT)
GREENSBORO, NC ? The College of Charleston erased an eight-point deficit in the final 63 seconds of the second half and sent the game into overtime where the Cougars held on for a 70-67 win over UNC Greensboro in Southern Conference women’s basketball action Monday night at Fleming Gym.
Sophomore guard Kristen Boone scored a game-high 18 points to lead UNCG (6-9, 2-4 SoCon). The Upper Marlboro, MD native also had six steals and four rebounds. Sophomore center Meghan Chamberlain notched her second straight double-double with 14 points and a career-high 14 rebounds. Junior forward KaLeah Latham added nine points and 10 rebounds for the Spartans.
Marketta Talley had a team-high 17 points for the College of Charleston (6-8, 4-3 SoCon). Jade Hughes and Erica Irick tossed in 16 and 15 points respectively. Sarah Moye had 12 rebounds for the Cougars.
With UNCG leading 60-52 with 1:03 left in regulation, Charleston got a 3-pointer from Irick, two free throws by Talley and another trey from Irick with eight seconds left to send the game into overtime tied 60-60. Boone went the length of the floor at the end of regulation, but her pull up jumper from 16-feet rattled off the rim.
In the extra session, Latham put UNCG up for the final time 65-64 as she connected on one of two free throws with 2:24 showing on the clock. After three consecutive misses by the Spartans from just under the basket, the UNCG bench was whistled for a technical foul.
Talley promptly converted both free throws on the other end to give Charleston a 66-65 lead with 1:03 to go. A missed jumper by junior forward Irene Otamiri forced UNCG to foul. Melissa Chambers calmly drilled two more free throws to put the Cougars up three points, 68-65. A jumper by Chamberlain with 11 seconds left got the home team back to within one, but Irick hit the second of two from the charity stripe for a 69-67 Cougar lead.
Boone again raced the entire length of the floor and got herself in position for what appeared to be a shot at a running layup, but she left it short and Charleston escaped with their first road win of the season in eight attempts.
Trailing for the majority of the game, Charleston ran off a 17-8 spurt to tie the game at 43-43 midway through the second half. It was the first tie of the game since it was 6-6 back in the opening minutes of the game. However, junior guard Jasmine Byrd gave UNCG the lead right back with her only 3-pointer of the game at the 9:13 mark of the second half.
Byrd’s triple jumpstarted an 11-4 run that put the Spartans up 54-47 with 4:13 left in regulation. UNCG opened the lead up to as many as eight points, before Charleston put together their improbable comeback.
In the first half, Talley drained a pair of 3-pointers to give Charleston a 6-0 lead just 67 seconds into the game. UNCG answered with a 17-3 run, fueled by Boone’s eight early points, to grab a 17-9 advantage at the 10:15 mark.
Freshman guard Ashley Ling later gave the Spartans a 27-16 lead with a nice short range jumper from the low block with 3:44 remaining until halftime. The Cougars would close the half on a mini 6-2 run to cut their intermission deficit to 29-22.
Charleston struggled from the field in the opening 20 minutes, converting only 27.6 (8-for-29) percent of its shots, while the Spartans were not much better at 33.3 (10-for-30) percent. Boone and sophomore guard Kemena Brooks, high school teammates at Gwynn Park in Maryland, combined for 18 points in the first half.
Talley, Hughes and Erika Smith were the lone scorers for Charleston in the opening stanza. Talley had 11 points, while Hughes had eight and Smith with three points. The Cougars held a slight, 22-21, advantage on the boards.
Story Courtesy Furman sports information
Chattanooga 75, Furman 65
GREENVILLE, SC - The Lady Mocs of Chattanooga ran their record to 13-3 overall and 7-0 in the Southern Conference with a 75-65 win over Furman (7-10, 3-4) Monday night in Timmons Arena.
UTC connected on nine first-half treys to take a 43-31 lead into the halftime break, but the Lady Paladins used tenacious defense and 17 second half trips to the foul line to make a run at the Mocs in the second period.
With 10:14 to play, freshman guard Melissa Liebschwager took a pass from Chrissy Phelps and swished a three-pointer to put Furman within two, 56-54. UTC's Erin Ogan answered with a three to extend the lead to five, and Chattanooga used a 9-0 run to regain its double-digit advantage.
In the final 2:18 senior guard Tommi Paris connected on four consecutive free throws to put Furman back within six, 69-63, with 1:30 on the clock. A foul by Paris set up a pair of Nicole Mattison free shots, and the 5-9 senior from Anderson, S.C., sank them both. After a Furman miss on the offensive end of the floor, guard Lauren Few was forced to foul again and Katasha Brown connected on two more free shots to put UTC up 73-63.
Few scored Furman's final two points with 26 seconds on the clock to reach 65 for the game, but Brown made two more with 20 seconds remaining to give Chattanooga the final 10 point margin and their 12th-consecutive victory, which ties their win streak for sixth in the nation.
The Lady Paladins were paced on the night by Paris, who celebrated her birthday with 22 points, three rebounds, and three assists. Few poured in 14 points, while Chirssy Phelps added eight and freshman Courtney Opie came of the bench to score seven points with three rebounds in 18 minutes of action.
Four Lady Mocs scored in double digits, including Brooke Hand, who paced the team with 16 points. Nicole Mattison scored 12 and claimed a personal-best seven steals while dishing off six assists on the night. Alex Anderson topped rebounding, with nine, keying Chattanooga's 34-29 advantage on the boards.
Furman was hurt badly by 19 turnovers, which Chattanooga parlayed into 27 points. In addition, the Mocs outscored Furman 34-16 in the paint and made 10 three-pointers to Furman's six. Despite the inequities, Furman held the Mocs to one made trey in the second period and committed just six second-half turnovers, while holding UTC to 32 points in the period.
"I was pretty pleased with the second half," said coach Sam Dixon after the loss. "We limited their made threes and did a great job defending their sets. We got overextended a few times and gave up some back door layups, but we played hard the entire game."
Story Courtesy Western Carolina sports information
Georgia Southern 72, Western Carolina 70
CULLOWHEE, NC - For the second-straight game in the Ramsey Center, one women's basketball team mounted a feverish rally down the stretch and had a last second look at the basket for a potential tie. On Monday night, Western Carolina tried to repeat what Chattanooga had pulled just two days prior, but the Lady Catamounts' last second runner rimmed out and the Georgia Southern Lady Eagles held on for the two-point, 72-70, victory in Southern Conference play.
Tied at 63 with 3:21 showing on the game clock, Georgia Southern held Western scoreless for nearly two minutes while it ran off a 7-0 spurt to pull ahead, 70-63, with 96 seconds remaining in the contest. But the Lady Catamounts would not quit. Following a 1-of-2 showing at the free throw line by sophomore Chevon Keith, Western turned back-to-back GSU turnovers into four points, slicing the deficit to two, 70-68. After a missed jumper by the Eagles' senior Nicole Newton, Western had two good looks at the basket thanks to an offensive rebound, but could not find the range and were forced to foul.
GSU's Ashley Melson made one of two from the charity stripe to extend the lead to three, 71-68, but Catamount sophomore Ashley Pellom drove the lane and sank a lay-up to cut the lead to one, 71-70. After a time-out, Western was unable to make a steal on the in-bounds pass and was forced to foul, putting senior Lee DuBose on the free throw line with just under five seconds to play. DuBose made one of two for the 72-70 lead, which allowed WCU to think about more than just a 3-pointer. Freshman guard Teshymia Tillman took the ball coast-to-coast, splitting the Lady Eagle defense along the way, but her lay-up runner in the lane circled the cylinder and fell out, dropping Western to 2-13 overall and 2-4 in the So Con.
The loss was Western's sixth by four points or less this season, with two additional contests needing overtime to determine the victor. All told, the aforementioned six losses have been by a combined 15 total points. The Lady Catamounts also remain winless at home in five attempts this season, 0-3 in league play.
Keith led the way for the Lady Catamounts on the night, just missing her career-high with 15 points, eight rebounds, and a pair of assists. Her frontcourt classmate, Monique Dawson, recorded her fifth-consecutive, double-digit scoring output, finishing with 13 points, three steals, and also dished out a pair of assists. Freshman Lauren Powell chipped in a dozen, including two from long range, while Pellom scored 10 and dished out three helpers.
Tillman on the night finished with six points and a career-high five assists, with her classmate, April Parker, leading Western on the boards with nine rebounds and seven points.
After trailing early by two, Western countered with a 10-0 run that spanned nearly four minutes to lead by eight, 10-2, at the 15:17 mark of the first half. The Lady Catamounts nursed their advantage over the next seven minutes until GSU knotted the game at 17-all at the 8:31 mark then outscored Western 18-9 the remainder of the half to lead at the break, 35-26.
In the second half, the Lady Catamounts came out of the blocks with a 13-to-4 run over the first four and a half minutes to erase the deficit and tie the game at 41. From that point forward, neither team would manage a lead larger than five points until GSU squeezed ahead by seven with 1:36 to play, setting up the scramble to the finish. Georgia Southern (7-9, 4-3 SoCon) put two players in double-figures, led by 19 points and nine rebounds from Newton, with sophomore Chequilla Jessie tallying the game's only double-double with 14 points, 11 rebounds.
Western will have a very short turnaround, hosting UNC Greensboro at Noon on Wednesday in the Ramsey Center for Education Day. With area youth out of school, WCU is offering FREE admission to all students ages 18 and under, with accompanying parents admitted for just $3.00. There is also a business lunch special available on Wednesday, with a $5.00 ticket also securing a FREE hotdog, bag of chips, and a drink from the concessions stand, courtesy of Aramark Dining Services. Parents, if they want, will be able to "upgrade" to the business lunch special also. UNC Greensboro is coming off an overtime loss at home to the College of Charleston in which the Cougars erased an eight-point deficit over the final 1:03 to force overtime and won in the extra session.