Chattanooga 70, UAB 63
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -? Three Chattanooga players tallied double digits as the Lady Mocs defeated the University of Alabama at Birmingham Monday night 70-63 at Bartow Arena.
Alex Anderson and Brooke Hand each led the Lady Mocs with 18 points. Anderson added 13 rebounds for her second double-double of the year. Hand went 4-for-8 from the 3-point line and moved into a tie for third on UTC’s all-time charts for made shots beyond the arc at 161. She is tied with Jan Cameron (1990-94).
With the score tied 24-24 midway through the first half, Alex Anderson put in a layup to give Chattanooga the lead for good. The Lady Mocs outscored UAB 19-8 and carried a 43-32 lead into halftime.
Kristen Spann’s layup 37 seconds into the second half, gave UTC its largest lead of the game at 45-32, but the Blazers would go on an 11-0 run to pull to within two points at the 16:53 mark. Hand nailed a 3-pointer to end the run and put UTC up 48-43.
Hand’s fourth from beyond the arc gave the Lady Mocs an eight point advantage at 15:26, but the Blazers would battle back to within three of Chattanooga on Fatiha Salaam’s trey at 10:32.
Amy Mohr bookended a 7-0 run to put the Lady Mocs back up by 10 with 6:50 to play, but UAB would again battle back, cutting the lead to four at 2:43 and 1:03. Chattanooga held on to claim a 70-63 win to move to 3-1 on the year.
Freshman Shanara Hollinquest recorded her first double-double on the year with 12 points and 12 rebounds, going 8-10 from the free throw line. Laura Hall had seven points and Spann added six.
The Lady Mocs outrebounded UAB 47-35 shot 40.7 percent from the floor. The Blazers remain winless on the year at 0-4. The Lady Mocs will travel to Murfreesboro, Tenn., Friday night to take on Middle Tennessee at 8 p.m. Eastern Time at the Murphy Center
Wofford 66, North Carolina A&T 60
GREENSBORO, N.C. -- The Wofford women’s basketball team built a 13-point halftime lead and stymied a strong second-half rally by host North Carolina A&T to earn a 66-60 victory in a hostile environment inside the Corbett Sports Center in Greensboro, N.C.
Junior Kelsi Koenig nailed a career-high 27 points, including 13-of-14 from the foul line, and an overall 27-of-34 effort from the charity stripe for the Terriers were the keys in the win.
The Terriers and Lady Aggies traded baskets early with Amber Bland’s 3-pointer at the 13:40 mark giving N.C. A&T its last lead of the contest, 8-7. Following her trey, Wofford (4-1) responded with a triple from senior Mary Jo Yee and never looked back. The Terriers went on a 13-4 run over the next six minutes, including holding the Lady Aggies scoreless for a five-minute stretch.
Emilee Christopher’s trey with 5:06 remaining in the stanza closed the margin to five, 20-15; the edge would be the closest North Carolina A&T (1-3) would get the rest of the half. Wofford closed the frame on an 11-3 spurt to take a 31-18 halftime advantage.
Intense ball pressure and a full court press brought the Aggies close early in the second half. Ten points by Bland brought N.C. A&T within three, 40-37, on a 19-9 streak with just over six minutes elapsed in the second session. The Terriers increased their lead again to nine, 48-39, on a pair of charity tosses from senior Susanna Paul, at the halfway mark of the period.
Consecutive layups by Lamona Smalley cut the deficit to five before Koenig hit two free throws and sophomore Summer Nichols’s field goal gave Wofford another nine point edge, 58-49, with 1:23 to play.
Foul shots were the key in the final minute with the Terriers connecting on 8-of-10 to seal the victory.
Nichols nearly had her second double-double of the season with eight points and nine rebounds, while senior Jennifer Weurding grabbed eight boards and added three blocks. She now has 186 blocked shots in her career, just nine shy of tying the all-time Southern Conference record of 195 held by Appalachian State’s Valorie Whiteside (1984-88).
Bland led a trio of Lady Aggies with 18 points. Ta’Wuana Cook chipped in 17 and Ahmed Williams contributed 13.
Wofford stands at 4-1 after five games for the second-straight season and trails the 5-0 start by the 2001-02 squad as the best opening five-game start in Division I school history. The 1992-93 team also started 5-0 and the 1989-90 campaign saw the Terriers open 4-1.
A 7 p.m. Wednesday meeting with ACC foe Wake Forest will close out the current three-game road swing for Wofford. It will be the first of three Atlantic Coast Conference opponents this season for the Terriers.
North Carolina A&T will participate in the UNC Greensboro Thanksgiving Tournament beginning with a Friday matchup with Providence, a member of the Big East.
Charlotte 86, UNC Greensboro 40
CHARLOTTE, NC ? Charlotte got 22 points apiece from Sabrina Gregory and Whitney Hoey and UNCG had a cold shooting night as the 49ers raced to an 86-40 win at Halton Arena on Monday night.
Charlotte, which has advanced to the NCAA or NIT tournaments in each of the last four years, has now won 13 consecutive home games. Dating back to November 2001, Charlotte is 58-10 at Halton Arena.
UNCG shot just 25.4 percent from the floor for the game, including 0-for-12 from three-point range. Kemena Brooks led UNCG (2-1) with nine points off the bench. Meghan Chamberlain, Ashley Mullins and Jasmine Byrd each had six points. Byrd, a senior from Dumfries, VA, averaged 25.5 points in the first two games this season.
UNCG junior guard Kristen Boone had four points, which is her lowest point total in the last 49 games going back to her freshman year. Boone did not return to the game after picking up her fourth foul with more than 16 minutes to play.
UNCG (2-1) started off missing its first six shots from the field. The Spartans recorded their first field goal at the 15:50 mark when Boone dished a pass to Chamberlain who put it in for the Spartans’ first bucket of the game. UNCG rattled off two more buckets in the next 40 seconds to take an 8-6 lead and looked like it was ready to settle in.
However, that is the last time the Spartans would be on top. The 49ers went on a 26-6 run to take a 34-14 lead. Sabrina Gregory scored 14 of her 18 first-half points in the run.
After shooting 60.7 percent in the first half on Friday night in their win over Campbell, the Spartans shot a mere 24.1 percent and 7-29 from the field in the first 20 minutes on Monday. UNCG’s first half efforts were also hampered by foul trouble. Boone picked up three fouls in the first stanza, while Irene Otamiri, KaLeah Latham and Kemena Brooks each picked up two.
The 49ers then opened up the second half on a 15-0 run, in the process of which Boone picked up her fourth foul, and UNCG never threatened after that.
“It is obvious that our team didn’t show up to play,” stated head coach Lynne Agee. “We weren’t prepared for the intensity of the game and I’m very disappointed with how we turned out.”
UNCG has now lost seven straight on Charlotte’s home court. The last time the Spartans beat the 49ers in Charlotte was way back on January 28, 1978.
Charlotte leads the all-time series, 11-2.
The Spartans host the annual UNCG Thanksgiving Tournament beginning Friday.
UNCG hosts Longwood at 1 pm and North Carolina A&T takes on Providence at 3 pm at Fleming Gym.