Appalachian State 84, Winthrop 61
November 28, 2006 - BOONE, N.C. ? Five Mountaineers scored in double-digits as the Appalachian State University women’s basketball team snapped a two-game skid with an 84-61 victory over Winthrop, Tuesday night at the Holmes Center.
Appalachian improves to 3-3 on the season, while Winthrop drops to 2-6 overall. ASU has now won seven-straight games over the Eagles.
The Mountaineers shot at a season-high 46.7 percent clip (7-15) from beyond the three-point arc. ASU also committed a season-low 17 turnovers and forced 32 by the visitors.
Appalachian got much-needed help from the bench with 33 bench points. The Mountaineers also took advantage of the Eagles’ mistakes with 29 points off of turnovers.
Senior Jaime Bennett (Woodstock, Ga.), sophomore Whitney Ketner (Spartanburg, S.C.) and junior Maria Grimes (Birmingham, Ala.) led the offensive attack with 18, 17 and 17 points, respectively. Bennett’s 18 points tied her career-high, while Ketner set a career high with her 17, and tied her rebounding high with eight.
Junior Whitney Tossie (Oviedo, Fla.) has now scored in double-digits in every game this season after putting up 12 in the win. She led the team with four steals and eight assists.
Tiffany Rodd led the Eagles with a double-double as the only visitor in double-digits. She put up 14 points and pulled down 12 rebounds. Ashley Fann added nine points, while Yvonne van Daalen led the defensive effort with three steals.
Winthrop opened the game with a 4-0 lead in the first two minutes of play courtesy of back-to-back baskets by van Daalen and Fann. The Mountaineers didn’t grab their first lead until an 8-0 run put them up 15-13 with just over 12 minutes to go in the opening half.
The Eagles tied the game back up at 15 with 10:30 left in the half, but didn’t within one point for the remainder of the half. The Mountaineers held a three-point lead at 28-25 with 3:45 left in the period, before an offensive explosion put them up 13 with a 40-27 halftime lead.
The Mountaineers carried their momentum to the second half as they made seven of their first eight shots of the period, eventually reaching their largest lead of the game of 31 points at the 11:45 mark.
Appalachian continued its hot shooting as it went on to a 23-point, 84-61 victory over Winthrop.
The Mountaineers head straight to the road as they travel to New Orleans, La., for the For Points by Sheraton UNO Lady Privateer Invitational, December 1-2. ASU kicks off the tournament against Richmond on Friday at 6 p.m. ET. Depending on the outcomes of Friday’s games, Appalachian will face either host-New Orleans or Southeastern Louisiana, Saturday, at either 2 or 4 p.m.
Georgia Southern 54, South Alabama 48
STATESBORO, Ga. ? The Georgia Southern women’s basketball team rallied from an eight-point deficit and went on a 12-4 scoring run late in the game to defeat South Alabama, 54-48, Tuesday night in Hanner Fieldhouse.
The Lady Eagles improve to 3-5 with their second consecutive win, while non-conference opponent South Alabama falls to 3-3.
The late rally saw Georgia Southern make 13-of-18 free throws in the second half, and with 5:16 remaining, GSU hit seven free throws and a pair of buckets to rise above the Lady Jags. Eight unanswered points sealed the victory, including Carolyn Whitney’s 15th and 16th consecutively made free throws, a streak that started versus Western Illinois (Nov. 25). The freshman guard scored 10 points on the night on 6-of-6 free throws.
Shawnda Atwood led the Lady Eagles with 11 points. Tiffany Brown pulled down a career-high 10 rebounds on the night.
“That last minute there, I thought we were in total control of ourselves,” said head coach Rusty Cram in his 11th year at the helm of the Lady Eagles. “We knocked down free throws when we had to, we played good defense, and we didn’t panic. We handled what they threw at us, and I thought that was the difference in the game.”
The Lady Jaguars were led by Whitney Woodard, who scored a game-high 12 points on the evening and grabbed six rebounds.
The Lady Jaguars jumped out to an early 6-0 lead with 17:15 on the clock. Then Carolyn Whitney hit a jumper to give the Lady Eagles their first points for a 6-2 score.
The Lady Eagles kept a narrow margin throughout the first half. A Tiffany Brown rebound with 13:50 on the clock led to a fast break lob to a sprinting Ashley Rivens. Rivens crossed over and switched hands for the left-hand layup, putting the Lady Eagles within two points, 12-10. Rivens finished with six points.
The Lady Eagles took the first lead of the game off a layup by Chequilla Jessie with 11:58 left in the half.
But the Lady Jags held GSU to 26.5 percent shooting, making 9-of-34 field goals in the first stanza. South Alabama led GSU by a 27-21 margin at the end of the half, shooting 12-of-34 from the field (.343).
“At halftime, we felt like we were just getting out-hussled, they were the aggressors, they had the momentum going, and we were just backing down to them,” said Cram, who picked up his 157th career win. “So we just tried to re-kindle a little fire in them. We tried to wake them up a bit and make some adjustments.”
In the second half, Carolyn Whitney’s pair of made free-throws tied up the match at 16:02, 29-29. It was Whitney’s 11th and 12th consecutive free throw made since going 3-of-6 at South Florida (Nov. 19).
Carolyn Whitney nailed another pair of free throws with 5:15 remaining, closing the USA advantage to only one point, 44-43.
Christa Waterman tied up the match with 4:37 remaining off a free throw. But a foul on the other end of the court put Valencia Boswell on the line, and the Lady Jags went up by two, making the free throws.
Carolyn Whitney was sent to the line again, and the result was the same as before, as she calmly sank both her attempts, tying up the match 46-46.
Ashley Rivens followed a missed shot and quickly put in the layup to give the Lady Eagles a 50-48 advantage with 61 seconds remaining. It was their first lead since early in the first half.
The Lady Jags missed a shot on the other end and the ball bounced off USA’s hands, giving Georgia Southern possession with 43 seconds remaining.
The Lady Eagles let the clock wind down as much as possible before Christa Waterman was fouled and sent to the line. With 18.7 seconds remaining on the stopped clock, Waterman hit the first free throw for a 51-48 advantage. The Lady Jags called a timeout. Waterman hit the second insurance free throw for a 52-48 lead and the eventual win.
Having closed out the month of November with the win, head coach Rusty Cram and the Lady Eagles open up the month of December with a non-conference battle at Central Florida. The game is scheduled for Friday, December 1 at 7 p.m.