Western Carolina 58, Furman 47
Greenville, S.C. -- Lauren Powell scored a game-high 21 points and Brooke Johnson added 10 points for Western Carolina as the Catamounts downed Furman 58-47 on Saturday afternoon at Timmons Arena.
Powell, the reigning Southern Conference Freshman of the Year, hit
10-of-18 shots from the floor, including 1-for-6 from beyond the arc, to lead the Catamounts. Johnson sank 6-of-7 free throws and finished 2-for-7 from the floor.
After Western Carolina took a 42-31 lead at the 10:59 mark in the second half, Furman scored six straight points on a Kali Holtfreter layup and two Sarah Baker jumpshots to trim the lead to 42-37 with nine minutes remaining. Furman kept the lead at five until the 7:27 mark before the Catamounts scored seven in a row. Chevon Keith scored a layup, followed by a three point play by Johnson. A steal and layup by Ashley Pellom gave Western Carolina its largest lead at 51-39 with six minutes remaining.
Chrissy Phelps led Furman with 13 points, but managed just two points in the second half. Maggie McKemie and Sarah Baker each pulled down eight rebounds for the Lady Paladins, and Katie Johnson tied her career-high with four blocked shots.
Turnovers and rebounds continued to plague Furman as the Lady Paladins committed 23 turnovers, and were outrebounded 43-35, including 21 offensive boards to the Catamounts. Western Carolina outscored Furman 19-10 in points off turnovers, and recorded 11 second chance points.
The first half was a back-and-forth battle that featured seven ties and 11 lead changes as neither team led by more that five points.
With the win, Western Carolina improves to 12-7 on the season, 6-2 in the Southern Conference. Furman falls to 6-13 overall, 1-7 in conference action. The Lady Paladins return to action on Monday as Furman travels to face Elon at 7 p.m. at Alumni Gym.
UNC Greensboro 88, Elon 40
GREENSBORO, NC ? UNC Greensboro had four players in doubles figures as they defeated Southern conference foe and backyard rival, Elon 88-40 in women?s basketball action in Fleming Gymnasium. The 48 points was the Spartans largest margin of victory this season.
UNCG (12-7, 5-3) was led by senior guard Jasmine Byrd who had 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the floor, including 2-of-4 from behind the arc. Irene Otamiri was 5-of-5 from the floor for 10 points, while Meghan Chamberlain and Brittany Frazier pulled down seven rebounds each.
?This was our picture perfect game,? head coach Lynne Agee said. ?This is the way that we should play each time we step on the floor.? I was very pleased with the effort that our team game. We tried to change up our defense a lot to keep on their toes and to play that way we needed to have a lot of effort, which is what we had today.?
Elon (7-11, 2-6) was led by Rachel Hester who had 10 points and Shamica Spears who had 10 rebounds.
Elon scored the first bucket of the second half but the Spartans responded with a bucket in the paint by KaLeah Latham extending the UNCG lead to 53-23 with just under 18 minutes left in the half. The Spartans were unstoppable through the games first four minutes extending the lead to 64-23 but Elon was able to score a few buckets to cut the lead to 66-28 at the 11:44 mark. UNCG continued to take it to the Phoneix outscoring them 42-20 through the half en route to their fifth conference victory.
The Spartans opened the game well with a jumper by Byrd through the right side on UNCG?s first possession. Elon countered with a bucket to even the score at 2-2 after a minute of play but it was all UNCG from that point. Back-to-back buckets by Kristen Boone gave UNCG an early lead, but it was steals on three consecutive possessions that gave UNCG a 15-6 lead at the 14:50 mark of the half.
Elon came out and hit a bucket in the paint after a media timeout, cutting the lead to 35-18. The Phoneix were able to get the ball back by forcing a Spartan turnover, but Boone?s quick hands forced Elon into a turnover which the Spartans were able to convert on the other end, that coupled with a three-pointer through the right side by Byrd, pushed the lead to 22-8.
The Spartans continued to apply the defensive pressure on Elon holding them to three field goals in the final eight minutes of the half and forcing them into 17 turnovers. Buckets by Byrd and Otamiri and free throws by Jasmine Dixon pushed the UNCG lead to 34-16 with just under four minutes left to play in the half. UNCG went on a 12-4 run to close the half and take a 40-26 lead into the lockeroom.
UNCG shot 17-of-33 from the floor and was 2-of-4 from behind the arc. Otamiri was 4-of-4 from the floor and Byrd was 4-of-5 from the floor. UNCG out-rebounded Elon 23-16 and picked up seven assists.
The Spartans hit the road next, traveling to Spartanburg to take on Wofford. Tip is set for 7 pm.
Chattanooga 65, College of Charleston 49
Charleston, S.C. ? Chattanooga’s Alex Anderson scored 25 points and pulled down 14 rebounds for her 11th double-double of the season to lead the Mocs to the 65-49 win over the College of Charleston in women’s basketball action in front of 531 fans this afternoon at the John Kresse Arena.
Charleston drops to 9-9 overall and 5-3 in the Southern Conference, while Chattanooga improves to 6-2 in the league and 13-6 overall.
Charleston shot 44.8 percent from the field in the first half and held the Mocs to 37.0 percent. The Cougars led by as much as six at 21-15, with 8:56 to go before intermission, when Chattanooga fought back with an 11-2 run over the next six minutes to take the three-point 26-23 lead with 2:17 left. The lead changed hands on several occasions during the final two minutes and the score was tied 31-31 at halftime.
The second half stayed close early but at 15:16 left in the game with Charleston leading 41-40, the Mocs went on a 12-0 run and at 7:11 to go, led 52-41. The Cougars responded to cut the margin to five, 52-47 with 4:47 left. UTC had an answer, though and rattled off 13 more points to just two for the Cougars the remainder and won the game by 16 points, 65-49.
Charleston shot just 23.7 percent in the second half to end the game with 32.8 percent. Chattanooga stayed consistent and shot 36.8 percent for the game. The Cougars out-rebounded the Mocs, 44-41 but had 20 turnovers, compared to 14 for Chattanooga. Charleston went 0-for-12 from the three-point arc in the second half to end the game two-for-19 and 10.5 percent. UTC was six-for-22. Chattanooga was 17-for-24 from the free-throw line, while CofC was just three-for-six.
Chattanooga’s Anderson led all scores with her 25 points and all rebounds with 14. Laura Hall followed with 18 for the Mocs. Nikki Williams led the Cougars with 14 points, while Jill Furstenburg paced the team in rebounds with 10.
Charleston travels to Western Carolina for a contest Monday, Jan. 22nd at 12:00 p.m. Chattanooga hosts Georgia Southern the same day at 7:00 p.m.
Appalachian State 85, Georgia Southern 68
STATESBORO, Ga. ? Appalachian State’s strong shooting, including Maria Grimes’ career-best 33 points led to an 85-68 victory over Georgia Southern, Saturday afternoon at Hanner Fieldhouse.
Georgia Southern (7-12, 2-6) drops its fifth consecutive game, three of which have come at home.
With the win, the Mountaineers (9-10, 3-5) break a four-game skid.
Grimes shot 9-of-13 from the field, including six triples, one three-pointer shy of ASU’s individual record in a game. The junior guard pulled down a season-best 10 rebounds on the day to garner her first double-double of the season.
Pacing the Lady Eagles were juniors Chequilla Jessie (Sanford, Fla.) and Shawnda Atwood (Pensacola, Fla.) each scoring 14 points on the day.
Jessie went 5-of-11 from the field and hit all four attempts from the free-throw line. Tiffany Brown (Waxhaw, N.C.) grabbed a team-best seven rebounds and netted 12 points.
In the first half, Appalachian State took advantage of Georgia Southern’s field-goal shooting struggles, building up a 16-point,
21-5 lead, including a 16-1 scoring drive over a 7:40 span.
Since Christa Waterman’s (Sugar Hill, Ga.) jumper with 17:52 early in the first half, freshman guard Carolyn Whitney (Duluth, Ga.) hit GSU’s first field goal in a span of 12:14, closing the Mountaineer advantage to an 11-point, 25-14 lead with 5:38 remaining in the first stanza.
While GSU made 4-of-28 (.143) attempts from the field, Appalachian State hit 11-of-20 (.550) field goal attempts, including 4-of-6 (.667) from three-point land. Over half of GSU’s first-half points came from the free-throw line as the Lady Eagles went 12-of-18 from the line.
The Mountaineers held a 35-21 lead at the break with Maria Grimes leading all scorers with 15 first-half points, including three trifectas. Atwood’s team-leading six points all came from the charity stripe in the first stanza.
In the second half action, Georgia Southern improved its field goal shooting almost three-fold, hitting 17-of-44 (.386) shots. But the Mountaineers nevertheless improved upon their first-half shooting as well, hitting 17-of-29 (.586) from the field.
The Mountaineers built up a 26 point, 69-43 lead with 8:02 remaining in the game, before Brown scored two consecutive three-pointers ? one from behind the arc, and the other the old fashioned way ? a bucket and a
free throw. Her points closed the ASU lead to a 20-point, 69-49
margin.
Two minutes later, the Mountaineers notched the largest lead of the game when Whitney Ketner’s layup with 6:10 remaining put ASU up 76-49.
Georgia Southern fought back in the remaining minutes, but the Lady Eagles couldn’t make up the difference in so short a time.
“They’ve got to play hard, 20 minutes, especially right out of the gate,”
said head coach Rusty Cram. “And teams are having their hottest nights against us right now. Tonight, you have Grimes that hits 33 tonight.
There’s no excuse for that. Even on your off nights, you can play defense.”
The Lady Eagles next hit the road, Monday when they face Chattanooga at the McKenzie Arena for a 7 p.m. tip-off.
Davidson 86, Wofford 39
DAVIDSON, N.C. -- Redshirt junior Katie Hamilton (Lilburn, Ga.) became the 10th player in program history to score 1,000 points for her career, while the freshmen duo of Alexandra Thompson (UNC Asheville, N.C.) and Julia Paquette (Stockbridge, Ga.) hit for career highs of 13 and 19 points, respectively, leading the Davidson women's basketball team to an 86-39 win over Wofford in Southern Conference action on Saturday evening at Belk Arena. Davidson moved its win streak to three straight, improving to 16-3 overall and 7-1 in league play. Wofford dropped to an even 9-9 overall and
3-5 in SoCon action.
The 47-point win is the 5th largest in program history and the largest SoCon win ever for Davidson. It is also the 4th largest win since the resurrection of the program in 1992-93.
Against Wofford, Davidson has now won 10 straight and moved to 10-2 during head coach Annette Watts' six years. In addition, the 39 points allowed tonight were the least amount given up all year by Davidson.
Hamilton needed just five points to score 1,000 for her career and she wasted no time in getting her points. The junior got the scoring started with back-to-back three-pointers to start the contest, and the Wildcats raced out to a 20-10 advantage through the first eight and a half minutes of play. The 'Cats hit eight of their first 12 shots and finished the half nailing an even 50 percent (15-of-30) for a 41-20 lead after one stanza.
They finished the game shooting 50.8 percent (32-of-63) from the field, including 51.5 percent in the second half.
Besides becoming the 10th player in program history, Hamilton is the second player ever to score 1,000 points for a career in only three years. Jennifer O'Brien was the first to do the task as she scored a school-best 1,510 points for her career. With 20 more points, Hamilton will move in to 9th place. The junior guard finished the contest with nine points, getting all nine from behind the arc on 3-of-4 shots and Davidson as a team was 7-of-11 from downtown.
Thompson, Paquette and the bench took care of the rest for Davidson in the second half in maintaining at least a 21-point advantage the rest of the game for the 86-39 win. The bench scored 35 of the Wildcats' 45 total points in the stanza and finished the contest with 47 to Wofford's 13. Thompson and Paquette combined to score 27 of the bench's 35 second half points on
9-of-11 shooting and an 8-for-8 performance from the charity stripe.
For the game, Paquette hit a career-best 9-of-11 shots from the field and sank one free throw for her 19 points. She hit six of Davidson's last eight buckets, getting all of them in the paint to lead the Wildcats to a 46-22 advantage down low.
Thompson did most of her damage at the free throw line, draining a career-best 8-for-8 from the charity stripe and was a perfect 2-for-2 from the field, including a three-pointer, on her way to a career-high 13 points.
Davidson as a team netted 15-of-18 shots from the 15-foot line.
The two 40-point halves for Davidson were the 11th and 12th times this season the Wildcats have accomplished the feat. The 'Cats ran its record to 4-0 when scoring 80 or more points, while the 86 total points were the second-most scored by Davidson this season.
The Wildcats also showed their unselfishness as for the 6th time this year it dished out over 20 assists, closing out the game with 23. Senior Jessica Mitchell (Wilkesboro, N.C.) had a game-high five, while two others chipped in with four each.
Wofford was led by Liz Miller's 15 points on 4-of-9 shooting, including
6-for-9 for the free throw line. Wofford hit only 31.1 percent of its shots and was held to 14 total field goals for the game.
Davidson looks to make it four straight when it hosts Appalachian State on Monday, Jan. 22 at 7 p.m. The Wildcats were swept last season in the two-game series, but have won three of the past five games.