Story Courtesy Wofford sports information
Georgia Southern 82, Wofford 63
SPARTANBURG, SC - A 16-5 Georgia Southern run over a five-and-a-half minute stretch in the second half opened up a close game and provided an 82-63 win for the Lady Eagles over host Wofford Monday afternoon in the Benjamin Johnson Arena.
The win allowed Georgia Southern head coach Rusty Cram to tally his 100th SoCon victory. Cram, who is in his 10th season at the helm of the Eagle program, joins Chattanooga’s Wes Moore as the only league coaches ever to matriculate past the century mark in conference wins.
Moore after the Lady Mocs’ 82-75 win over UNC Greensboro now has 112 league wins to his credit in eight seasons in charge of the UTC women’s basketball program.
When the streak began, sophomore Kelsi Koenig had just hit a 3-pointer to give the Terriers a 46-45 lead with 10:11 to play. It capped a 11-2 Wofford run of its own, which included four points apiece by juniors K.C. Correll and Jenny Weurding.
Once Georgia Southern established its first double-digit margin of the contest at 61-51 with 4:53 to play, the Lady Eagles continued to pour in the points and outscored the Terriers 21-12 the remainder of the game. The closest Wofford would get would be seven following a trey by junior Mary Jo Yee.
The Terriers opened the game with a 6-0 start and eventually pushed their advantage to 11-2 on a bucket from senior Nakia Mister with 16:42 left in the first half. Intense defensive pressure, which included six steals highlighted by four from freshman Liz Miller.
Georgia Southern (4-7, 1-1 SoCon) responded by battling back and tying the game at 19-19 with 6:47 to go in the opening stanza on a Tiffany Brown jumper. Another Brown basket gave the Lady Eagles their first lead of the contest, 21-19, at the 4:59 mark as part of a 6-0 streak.
Miller evened the score again at 23 apiece with just over three minutes remaining before four straight points by Weurding closed the half’s scoring and the teams entered the locker room tied at 27-27. It was the first time this season in which Wofford (4-7, 0-3 SoCon) was tied at the intermission.
Koenig connected on the first field goal of the second half as the Terriers took their final lead, 29-27, with 19:22 remaining.
Four players scored in double figures for Georgia Southern, led by Brown’s 15 points off the bench. Shawnda Atwood and Nicole Newton chipped in 13 apiece, while Fallon Lee added 11 which included three 3-pointers.
Concella Henry collected a game-high 12 rebounds as the Lady Eagles posted a 50-to-31 edge on the boards.
With 17 points, Koenig was the game’s leading scorer. She hit her first six shots and finished 7-of-11 from the field, including a 3-of-5 effort from 3-point land. Mister joined her in double digits with 10, while the pair tied for team-high honors with six caroms.
Yee chipped in with nine and freshman Summer Nichols and Weurding added eight each.
Following her strong defensive start, Miller finished with a career-best and team season-high six steals. Wofford held a 19-to-13 edge on steals for the game.
Senior LaToya Strong finished with a team-high five assists, two shy of Lee’s game-best tally of seven.
Story Courtesy Appalachian State sports information
Furman 67, Appalachian State 60
BOONE, NC - The Appalachian State University women's basketball team suffered its first SoCon loss of the season, falling to visiting Furman, 67-60, at the Holmes Center Monday evening.
Sophomore Whitney Tossie led all scorers with 18 points, nine steals seven rebounds and five assists. In the paint, Eboni Kirby recorded a double-double with 10 points and 13 rebounds.
The Paladins were paced by two players in double figures with Lauren Few and Sarah Baker scoring 15 and 10, respectively.
Appalachian staged a valiant comeback as the team trailed by 20, 57-37, with nearly 13 minutes left in the second half. The Apps then scored 11 unanswered points to cut the lead to cut the Paladin lead to nine, 57-48, with 4:52 left to play. ASU continued to use its full-court press to force turnovers and quick Furman possessions to get as close as five points twice in the final minute of play.
However, Furman made all four of its free throws in the final minute of play to escape with the win and improve to 6-6 overall and 1-1 in Southern Conference play. The Mountaineers fall to 6-6 overall and 2-1 in the league.
Furman opened the game on a 10-0 spurt and shot 71 percent from beyond the three-point arc during the opening half.
Story Courtesy UNC Greensboro sports information
Chattanooga 82, UNC Greensboro 75
GREENSBORO, NC - Chattanooga shot a blistering 63.3 percent in the second half to erase a 10-point halftime deficit in sending the Lady Mocs to an 82-75 victory over UNC Greensboro in Southern Conference women’s basketball action Monday night at Fleming Gym.
Junior guard Jasmine Byrd led UNCG (4-7, 0-2 SoCon) with a season-high 21 points on 5-of-10 shooting from beyond the arc. Sophomore center Meghan Chamberlain converted 7-of-9 shots for a career-best 15 points. Sophomore guard Kristen Boone posted her first career double-double with 11 points and 11 assists, the latter figure represents the most assists for a Spartan since ChoRhonda Gwaltney had 10 helpers against College of Charleston on December 29, 2000.
Freshman guard Gini Grimsley and junior forward Irene Otamiri each tossed in 10 points for the Spartans.
Laura Hall led all scorers with a career-high 25 points on 9-of-10 shooting for Chattanooga (9-3, 3-0 SoCon). Tiffani Roberson added 22 points and Katasha Brown contributed 12 points in the win.
UNCG shot a season-best 55.5 (16-for-29) percent from the floor to take a seemingly comfortable 41-31 lead into intermission with Byrd pacing the Spartans with 13 points in the opening 20 minutes of action.
Chattanooga, who has now won eight straight games, put together a 13-2 run over the opening 3:05 of the second half to grab the lead back from the Spartans, 44-43. Brown, the pre-season conference player of the year, gave the Lady Mocs the lead with her third trey of the game.
Grimsley answered for the Spartans with five straight points to put UNCG back up top 50-49 with 13:30 to go. With the game tied 52-52, UTC rattled off a 14-5 run that put them up 66-57 with 8:03 left. Roberson had seven points in the run, while Hall drained a 3-pointer and a jumper from the lane. The lead would later swell to 15 points four minutes later, before UNCG got to within six on a 3-pointer by Byrd with four ticks left in the game.
UNCG connected on three straight 3-pointers to take a 29-22 lead with 6:55 left in the first half. Grimsley banked in a trey to give the Spartans the lead and Byrd followed with back-to-back 3-pointers. UNCG would take its biggest lead into the half, 41-31, after Latham converted a pair of free throws with 29 seconds left.
Chattanooga drained 10-of-21 shots from beyond the arc, while UNCG had a season-high seven treys. UTC held a 36-28 advantage in rebounding, including a 21-12 cushion in the second half.
Story Courtesy Western Carolina sports information
Elon 85, Western Carolina 72
Cullowhee, NC - Western Carolina put four players in double-figures, including the first career double-double for freshman post April Parker, but could not overcome Elon's 52-percent showing from the field in second half and a career night for sophomore Kitara McMoore, falling 85-72, to the Phoenix at the Ramsey Center Monday night.
Western (1-10, 1-1 SoCon) was again paced by freshman guard Lauren Powell who finished with 18 points, 14 of which came in the first stanza. Powell nailed four treys, all of which came in the opening half, to record her ninth career double-digit scoring performance. But it was her frontcourt classmate, Parker, who nearly stole the show. The Snellville, Ga., native tallied career-highs with 13 points and 10 rebounds, including six on the offensive end, en route to her first double-double. She also was credited with one blocked shot.
Sophomore guards Ashley Pellom and Monique Dawson also reached double-digits in the loss, tallying 10 apiece, with Pellom dishing out eight assists and swiping a pair of steals. Junior forward Erin May added nine points and four boards.
The Lady Catamounts never trailed in the first half, taking two, nine-point advantages in the first 20 minutes only to have the Phoenix rally to keep pace. Opening the game on a 13-4 run, Western built its first nine-point edge at the 14:08 mark, but Elon pulled back to within one, 14-13, four minutes later. After the Phoenix tied the game at 19-all with seven minutes remaining until the half, Western rattled off nine-straight points, including a pair of Powell trifectas, to again push the lead back to nine, 28-19. However, Elon closed the first stanza with a 14-to-5 run, including a steal and a McMoore lay-up at the buzzer to knot the game at 33 at intermission.
The Phoenix took their first lead of the night just under two minutes into the second half, 36-35. It would prove to be the game's final lead change as Elon inched ahead by seven at the 15-minute mark, but would push the advantage into double-digits midway through the final half. Ballooning the lead to as many as 17, Elon cruised down the stretch as Western could not take advantage of opportunities from the free throw line, falling 85-72.
Western Carolina out rebounded the Phoenix, 43-to-41, including holding a 20-to-15 edge on the offensive glass. But the more telling statistic on the night was field goal percentage. Elon shot 48.5-percent for the game, including 51.5 in the second half, while Western put up a 36.7-percent showing for the game, 31-percent in the second half alone and just 14-percent from beyond the 3-point arc after intermission.
Elon (5-6, 1-2 SoCon) was led by the career night for sophomore forward Kitara McMoore, who shot 12-of-18 from the floor on the night to finish with 31 points. The Virginia Beach, Va., native added 16 rebounds for her second-consecutive - and fourth overall - double-double of the season. Also scoring a career-high for the Phoenix was sophomore Nicole Allison, who finished with 20, with her backcourt classmate, Robyn Shipley, rounding out the Elon double-digit scorers with 11, including three, 3-pointers.