Chattanooga 72, UNC Asheville 59
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -- Coming off an eight-day, three-game road trip, the Lady Mocs returned home to claim their fifth consecutive win, defeating UNC-Asheville 72-59 at the McKenzie Arena Thursday night.
Alex Anderson led all scorers with 23 points, one shy of her career-high, and just missed her seventh double-double this season with nine rebounds. The Stone Mountain, Ga., junior knocked down 15 points in the first half as the Lady Mocs struggled to make a shot from the outside.
The 3-pointer was one shot that wouldn’t fall in the opening stanza for the Lady Mocs. Chattanooga went 0-for-7 from beyond the arc and didn’t sink a trey until Brooke Hand hit two back-to-back late in the game. She scored 12 points for UTC and dished out three assists.
That stretched the lead to 59-49 with 5:46 to play. Chattanooga kept the Bulldogs at bay allowing just one shot on six attempts in the final minutes of the game. UNCA would make seven free throws to keep the game close, but it wouldn’t be enough.
Freshman Shanara Hollinquest was one of four UTC players in double figures with 14 points, eight rebounds and three steals. Fellow freshman Jenaya Wade-Fray went 5-for-8 on the night with a crucial second half 3-pointer that put the Lady Mocs up by 11 and had 12 points.
Brittany Hendley led the Bulldogs with 16 points and Ana Baker knocked down 10 points and had four steals in the effort. Hendley went 5-for-6 from the floor and was 5-for-6 from the free throw line. Baker scored all of her points in the second half, including a 3-pointer at the 13:03 mark to get UNCA to within four after trailing by nine at the break.
Chattanooga improves to 8-4 overall and will take time off for the Christmas holidays. They step back into Southern Conference action with a 3:00 p.m. tip-off against Elon on Dec. 30 at the McKenzie Arena.
Appalachian State 79, Virginia Commonwealth 68
BOONE, N.C. - Junior Whitney Tossie (Oviedo, Fla.) scored career and game-highs with 30 points to lead Appalachian State University women’s basketball past visiting VCU, 79-68, Thursday night at the Holmes Center.
The Mountaineers conclude their non-conference season at 7-5 overall, while VCU drops to 6-4 with the loss. The Mountaineers shot 74.1 percent from the free throw line and 33.3 percent from the field. ASU forced 28 turnovers from VCU, a season-high for the visitors, and converted them into 26 points.
Tossie added six steals and eight rebounds and shot 11-of-13 from the charity stripe. Freshman GiGi Thomas (Tallahassee, Fla.) added 22 points for ASU and senior Jaime Bennett (Woodstock, Ga.) pulled down a team-high 12 boards and added six points.
Two Rams recorded double-doubles as Krystal Vaughn had a team-high 17 points and added 11 rebounds, while Quanitra Hollingsworth put up 11 points and grabbed 15 boards. La’Tavia Rorie joined her teammates in double-digits with 10 points.
The visitors got on the board first and took a quick 5-0 lead led by an old-fashioned three-point play by D’Andra Moss. The Mountaineers didn’t grab their first lead of the game until the 4:55 mark in the first half as Bennett hit a jumper for a 29-28 lead. ASU outscored VCU, 14-5 in the final four minutes to take a 10-point, 43-33 lead into halftime.
ASU reached its largest lead of the game at 12 points with a 47-35 advantage with 17:56 to play in the game. The Rams slowly came back, pulling within two points at 62-60 with 5:22 to go. After two-straight Appalachian buckets, VCU pulled back within four points at 66-62 with just over four minutes to play, before a layup by Thomas extended the lead to six.
The Mountaineers hit seven free throws in the final two minutes of play, to go on to an 11-point, 79-68 victory.
Appalachian jumps back into Southern Conference action as it travels to Charleston, S.C. to take on the College of Charleston, Friday, December
29 at 1 p.m.
Texas Tech 63, Furman 44
Lubbock, Texas -- Alesha Roberston scored a game high 19 points and the Lady Raiders held a 47-34 advantage on the boards as Texas Tech defeated Furman 63-44 in front of 11, 985 on Thursday night at the United Spirit Arena.
Furman placed two scorers in double-digits, but failed to overcome a season-worst 28.6 percent shooting from the floor. After trailing by as many as 12 points in the first half, the Lady Paladins trimmed the lead to five points in the second half, however, Furman managed just two field goals over the last 15:29 of the second half, as the Lady Raiders ended the game on a 23-9 run.
Chrissy Phelps led Furman with 15 points and seven rebounds. Melissa Liebschwager scored 10 points for the Lady Paladins, for her second straight game in double-digits.
Furman could not control the Lady Raiders on the boards, giving up 14 offensive rebounds in the first half. After shooting 34.8 percent in the first half, the Lady Paladins made just six second half field goals.
The Lady Paladins shot 50 percent from beyond the arc (7-14), and were perfect from the free-throw line (9-9).
Furman trailed 37-24 early in the second half before the Lady Paladins went on an 11-3 run, including three straight threes from Phelps and Lee Stephens. But the Lady Paladins could not get into an offensive rhythm, and managed a Stephens three-pointer and a Mollie Petersen lay-in over the final 15 minutes.
With the win, Texas Tech improves to 9-3 overall, while Furman falls to
5-6 on the season with the loss. The Lady Paladins will have a week off for the holidays before returning home to play host to Eastern Michigan on December 28 in the Lady Paladins’ final non-conference game of the season. That game is scheduled to tip-off at 7:00 p.m. at Timmons Arena.
Troy 58, Georgia Southern 53
STATESBORO, Ga. ? The Georgia Southern women’s basketball team rallied back from a 17-point deficit in the second half to pull within three, but Troy held on for the 58-53 win, Thursday night, at Hanner Fieldhouse.
Georgia Southern falls to 5-7 with the non-conference loss, its second straight before going into the Christmas break.
Troy improves to 7-4 with the win, going 2-0 against the Lady Eagles this year.
After a rocky start in the first half, plagued by an 18.2 percent shooting figure, the Lady Eagles rallied back and were paced by Tiffany Brown (Waxhaw, N.C.) who scored 11 of her game-high 18 points in the second half.
Troy’s two-guard tandem in Amy Lewis and Kylie Morrissy both contributed a double-double as four Trojans scored in double-figures. Morrissy tallied 15 points and 12 rebounds, while Lewis recorded 12 points and 10 rebounds.
But as well as the Trojans executed their shooting duties, the Lady Eagles excelled with a tight, scrappy defense that produced 22 points off of the opposition’s mistakes.
“We forced 29 turnovers tonight and only had (16) ourselves. That’s pretty gutsy basketball,” said 11th year head coach Rusty Cram. “When you shoot 22 percent from the field and 20 percent from the three-point line ? especially when you’re missing free-throws down the stretch ? that’s just hard to overcome. I don’t care what kind of defense you’re playing. You’ve got to put the ball in the hole. That’s the bottom line.”
The Trojans made 50.0 percent of their attempts from the field, making 9-of-25 in the first half.
Three quick fouls by Georgia Southern led to the Trojans getting on the scoreboard first with a free-throw off the hands of Valensia Hairston.
Brown was fouled shooting a layup on a fast break and was sent to the line with 16:57 on the clock. She sank both shots to give the Lady Eagles their first points of the game and a 2-1 lead.
Shawnda Atwood’s (Pensacola, Fla.) steal at 8:28 and a backdoor pass to a cutting Brown led to reverse layup and the Lady Eagles’ first lead of the game, 15-13.
Troy’s Lewis sparked a 13-0 scoring run when she buried a three-pointer, and the Trojans commanded a 26-15 lead with 3:30 remaining in the first half.
Ashley Rivens (Charlotte, N.C.) finally broke the six-minute scoring drought with a 12-footer that closed Troy’s lead to just nine points.
But the Trojans held the Lady Eagles to 6-of-33 shooting in the first half, compared to Troy’s 36.0 percent. Despite committing 16 turnovers, the Trojans went into the locker room with a 28-19 lead.
In the next stanza, Chequilla Jessie’s (Sanford, Fla.) give-and-go pass to a cutting Rivens gave the Lady Eagles the first points of the second half.
But over the next 2:42, Troy built up a 17-point lead scoring the next 10 points, its largest lead of the game, 38-21.
Carolyn Whitney (Duluth, Ga.) finally broke the GSU drought burying a trey with 15:40 remaining in the half and closing the Troy lead to 38-24. Her successful shot ignited a 13-6 run that closed the Troy lead to 10 points.
Both teams traded buckets throughout the remainder of the contest until the Lady Eagles climbed their way back with a 9-0 run over a 3:36 time-span, capped by Whitney’s three-pointer. Consequently, the Lady Eagles found themselves down by six with 1:21 remaining.
A pair of free-throws off the hands of Brown brought the Lady Eagles to within four points with 48 to go. Though the Trojans were sent to the line four times, with each attempt successful, and an eight-point lead with 39 seconds remaining, the Lady Eagles continued to battle back.
Troy made a free throw in between a pair of trifectas off the hands of Brown and Ashley Melson (Newnan, Ga.), and the Lady Eagles had pulled to within three points with 10 seconds remaining. But the second half rally came up sair of free-throws and time expired.
“The heart was there,” said Cram of the second-half rally. “We can build from that. They’re young. We know that. We just made some mistakes at the wrong time. But we stepped up, too. We’ll get better, if they play with that kind of heart.”
The Lady Eagles went 17-of-27 (.630) from the charity stripe, behind Troy’s 14-of-18 (.778) free-throw shooting.
The Lady Eagles take a break for the Christmas holiday before returning back to Hanner Fieldhouse for the fourth of a five-game homestand versus Furman, Dec. 30. Tip-off is slated for 1 p.m. The men’s basketball team will follow the women’s game to cap the home double-header as they battle UNC Greensboro.