Final Week
This week marks the final week of regular season action for the SoCon women’s basketball teams. The final regular season game of the season in the SoCon will be Sunday, Feb. 26 when the Furman Lady Paladins travel to Davidson, NC, to take on the Davidson Wildcats at 3 p.m.
Dancing The Charleston
After a one year hiatus with the conference tournament being held in Chattanooga, TN in 2005, the SoCon Tournament returns to the North Charleston Coliseum for the fourth time in five seasons ? and for each of the next two years. The tournament will take place Thursday, March 2 through Sunday, March 5. The first two rounds of the women’s basketball championships will be played at McAlister Field House on the campus of The Citadel before moving to the North Charleston Coliseum for the semifinals and finals. Tickets for the Southern Conference Men’s and Women’s Tournament officially went on sale Feb. 3 at Ticketmaster outlets and at the North Charleston Coliseum box office. Single session tickets are $12 or a tournament book for all sessions is $60. Tickets are also available through SoCon member institution ticket offices.
Keep It Going
The Chattanooga Lady Mocs have not seen the losing side of a box score since November 25. Wes Moore’s club is in the midst of the longest winning streak in the nation after winning their 22nd straight on Monday against Georgia Southern in Chattanooga. The Lady Mocs’ consecutive victories have helped them to their fourth straight outright regular season league crown in the 2005-06 campaign. Overall, Chattanooga, who received a season-high 28 votes to finished ranked No.27 in the latest USA Today ESPN Division I Top 25 Coaches’ Poll, has won 12 titles since 1984.
The Right Direction
Appalachian State’s two wins last week moved the team to 13-12 in the 2005-06 season. The 13 wins picked up are the most by an Appalachian squad since the 1999-2000 season when they finished fifth in the league standings and tallied 13 wins. The 13 victories acquired this season are also the most by the Mountaineers in the Adrienne Shuler era, with the nine conference games won so far tying for the most under Shuler and for the third-best mark in school history.
Keep It In League
College of Charleston’s 75-53 victory over Savannah State last Wednesday marked the final time that a SoCon team took to the hardwood against a non-league foe before the NCAA tournament. The women’s basketball teams in the conference finished the regular season 38-54 against non-league opponents, but were 23-7 against these teams on their home courts.
Back-to-Back-to-Back
Western Carolina has gone a fairly impressive 8-9 against league competition after entering league play 0-9 overall on Dec. 31 against Wofford. Still, the Catamounts were never able to put consecutive wins together until last week. The reigning SoCon tournament champions tallied wins over Georgia Southern and Furman (Feb. 13 and 18) to record its first win streak of the season. It became contagious for the Catamounts, as they ended last week with a three-game winning streak after defeating College of Charleston in Cullowhee on Monday, 98-65, their most points matriculated in a contest in over five years.
Appalachian State (13-12, 9-7 SoCon)
Appalachian State is in the midst of a three-game winning streak after picking up wins last week over Georgia Southern and Wofford ... The Mountaineers’ victory guaranteed them no worse than a sixth or better finish in the regular season standings ... The 13 victories commandeered thus far by Appalachian are the most in the Adrienne Shuler era and the most since the 1999-2000 season for the Mountaineers ... The nine conference wins by Appalachian so far tie for the third most in school history ... Appalachian has now set a school record for thefts in a season, tallying 336 steals this year to best last year’s previous school record of 319 ... The second-best in the category in the nation behind SoCon rival Wofford, Appalachian has two players ranked in the top-25 nationally in the category in Whitney Tossie (15th, 3.2 spg) and Greteya Kelley (22nd, 3.0 spg).
College of Charleston (11-15, 7-10 SoCon)
College of Charleston began its efforts last week by besting Savannah State 75-53 in Savannah in its final non-conference regular season game of the 2005-06 season ... The Cougars fell in their next two games to league foes Chattanooga and Western Carolina ... Jade Hughes scored a game-high 23 points in the Cougars’ loss to Chattanooga ... Hughes also picked up a career-high five 3-pointers in the contest ... The Cougars close out the regular season on Saturday at Georgia Southern.
Chattanooga (22-3, 17-0 SoCon)
Chattanooga has not been on the losing side of a box score in its last 22 games after victories last week over College of Charleston on the road and Georgia Southern at home on senior night ... In the victory over CofC, Chattanooga head coach Wes Moore earned SoCon victory No. 125 ... Moore now has an all-time conference-high 126 league wins to his credit after the Lady Mocs’ win over GSU on Monday ... Alex Anderson tallied seven blocks against the Lady Eagles to break a school record for single game blocks previously held by Gina Rogers set on Dec. 31, 1981 ... Anderson now has 92 blocks for her career and the sophomore trails Chairs by just six for the overall school record ... Brooke Hand made three 3-pointers last week to reach a SoCon season-high 70 ... As a team, Chattanooga’s 207 3-pointers surpassed the school record 203 made in the 2002-03 season ... Katasha Brown now has 205 triples for her career, trailing the SoCon record of 213 by eight.
Davidson (15-10, 11-5 SoCon)
Davidson has won three straight contests after downing Elon and Wofford last week ... The three consecutive victories tie for the longest win streak of the season (Jan. 14, 17, 21) ... The Wildcats play their final two regular season games at home starting Tuesday, Feb. 21 against Appalachian State before ending things by hosting Furman in the final regular season game of the year in the SoCon on Sunday at 3 p.m. ... Davidson’s 58-43 win over Wofford last Saturday was the ninth straight over the Terriers for the Wildcats ... The victory also gave the Wildcats another series sweep of a league opponent ... The Wildcats have now swept five league opponents in 2005-06 (Elon, GSU, Wofford, CofC and WCU) ... The Wofford win also gave the Wildcats their 11th straight game with 10 or more steals accumulated.
Elon (11-14, 6-10 SoCon)
Elon lost two games last week, falling to Tarheel state foes Davidson and UNCG ... The loss to Davidson at home was only the fourth loss of the season in Alumni Gym for the Phoenix ... On the season, Elon is 7-4 at Alumni Gym ... Kitara McMoore met her league-high average of 14.0 points per game last week, averaging 14.0 points in the two losses ... McMoore is still the league leader in rebounds, averaging 9.0 per outing.
Furman (9-17, 5-11 SoCon)
Furman ended the previous week 2-1, but fell to Western Carolina in its only contest last week, 63-49 ... The loss leaves the Lady Paladins with a two-game losing streak entering Tuesday’s game with Elon ... Since January 7, the Lady Paladins are 2-11 ... Despite the recent slump, Furman leads the league in several statistical categories, including free throw shooting (.739) and three-point field goal percentage (.382) ... The Lady Paladins are also tops in the league as a team in blocked shots, swatting 109 on the season up to this point ... Tommi Paris, the league leader in free throws, currently ranks fifth in the nation in free throw percentage at 91.7 percent.
Georgia Southern (9-17, 6-11 SoCon)
Georgia Southern with losses to Appalachian State and Chattanooga last week, has now lost a season-high six straight contests ... Chequilla Jessie nailed all six of her shots from the field in the Lady Eagles’ loss to Appalachian State ... Jessie’s 12 points in the contest were her most since notching her first career double-double on Jan. 16 in a win over Western Carolina ... Lee Dubose continued to be on-point from the beyond the arc for the Lady Eagles last week, extending her consecutive 3-point streak to 30 games dating back to last season ... Dubose now has 46 triples on the campaign, which is good for fifth most in single-season school history ... Two more three-pointers will move her into fourth place ... Shawnda Atwood, who has reached double-digits in seven of her last 10 games, scored a team-high 14 points against league-leading Chattanooga on Monday ... In the Lady Eagles’ two contests against UTC, Atwood averaged 15.5 points per game.
UNC Greensboro (14-11, 10-6 SoCon)
UNCG played in just one contest last week, but came out on top in a 53-45 victory over Elon to enter Tuesday’s game against Wofford in Spartanburg with a two-game winning streak ... The Spartans with a win over Wofford on Tuesday, will surpass last year’s win total of 14 and would mark the most wins for the Spartans’ program since the 2001-02 season (21) ... Kristen Boone needs just four three throws this week to have nailed 200 in her career ... The Spartans are 7-0 this season when holding opponents under 60 points.
Western Carolina (8-18, 8-9 SoCon)
Western Carolina procured two wins last week over Furman and College of Charleston to rattle off a season-high three-game winning streak ... The Catamounts’ win over Furman (GSU and Furman) provided Western Carolina with its first back-to-back wins in the 2005-06 season ... Western Carolina shot a season-best 70 percent from the field in the second half on Monday in a 98-65 victory over CofC ... In the win over the Cougars, the Catamounts shot 57.8 percent from the floor, the highest of the season and the first time all season that they had usurped the 50 percent plateau ... The 98 points accumulated in the victory over CofC were the most by a Lady Catamount team since tallying 107 in game against Davidson on 12/19/01 ... The 33-point margin of victory was the largest in the two-year stint of head coach Kellie Harper ... The Lady Catamounts had five players reach double digits in the win for the second time this season.
Wofford (7-18, 3-13 SoCon)
Wofford fell victim to Appalachian State and Davidson last week to sit mired in a three-game losing streak ... In the loss to Davidson last Saturday, Wofford freshman Liz Miller acquired three steals to surpass Ricaye Harris for the Terrier Division I single-season steal record ... Miller now has 62 on the season, eclipsing Harris’ total of 60 set in the 2002-03 campaign ... As a team, Wofford leads the league in steals per game with 13.80 and is the tops in the category nationally ... Jenny Weurding, who has 165 blocks to her credit, is four shy of tying Lucy Hines’ (1997-2001) mark for all-time blocks ... Nakia Mister, who enters this week with 190 thefts, is nine short of surpassing Harris’ all-time steals mark at the school of 199.