Chattanooga 83, UNC Greensboro 66
GREENSBORO, NC- UNC Greensboro had three players in doubles figures but couldn’t solve Chattanooga’s outside game falling, 83-66 to Southern Conference rival Chattanooga in Fleming Gymnasium Monday night in women?s basketball action.
Senior guard Irene Otamiri and junior Kristen Boone led the way for UNCG (14-8, 7-4) with 14 points each, while KaLeah Latham had eight rebounds. Jasmine Byrd was UNCG’s next leading scorer with 13 points. Otamiri also tallied a game-high five steals.
“There are no excuses,” head coach Lynne Agee said. “This was probably the hardest weekend we’ve had, coming off a big game on Saturday against Davidson and then turning around and playing Chattanooga is challenging for anyone and we didn’t respond well. We didn’t play well today, we were missing assignments, not defending and we couldn’t find our focus and that just killed us tonight.”
Chattanooga (16-6, 9-2) was led by Jenaya Wade-Fray who scored a career-high 24 points and went 6-for-6 from behind the arc. Alex Anderson and was Chattanooga’s next leading scorer with 23 points and also pulled down a game-high nine rebounds.
UNCG shot 46.6 percent from the field on 29-of-62 shooting and pulled down 34 rebounds in the loss.
The teams started the second half slowly but two UNCG free throws cut the lead to 39-36 in the early goings of the half but free throws by Chattanooga pushed the lead up to six points. Ashley Ling dropped in a long jumper to cut the lead again but UNCG couldn’t stop the Mocs who pushed their lead to eight points at the 14:35 mark.
Brittany Frazier wouldn’t let UNCG fade way scoring on the inside and a long jumper from Otamiri cut the lead to four points, but UTC again found the basket pushing their lead to seven points. Otamiri again rallied the troops by hitting back-to-back buckets to cut the lead to 49-47 with just under 11 minutes left in the half.
Chattanooga went on a 9-2 run to jump back out to a 47-55 lead at the 9:25 mark and was able to get their outside game going and pushed their lead to 69-51, the largest lead of the game, at the 5:47 mark. UNCG was able to rattle off three unanswered buckets to cut the lead to 61-71, but couldn?t find an answer for Chattanooga’s three-point shots, dropping their first game in their last five outings.
Both teams started the games slowly but it was Chattanooga that got on the board first with a bucket by Laura Hall. The Spartans came up empty their first few possessions but Byrd hit a jumper through the right side to tie the game at two all the 18:06 mark.
Chattanooga’s Anderson hit the games first three at the 15:46 mark to give Chattanooga a one-point lead with just under 16 minutes in the half but a bucket from Otamiri and a quick steal kept the lead at one, but several quick buckets by UTC extended their lead to 11-6, but an Otamiri trey to cut the lead to two points.
The teams traded buckets for the next several minutes and UNCG was able to take a three-point lead at the 9:53 mark. Frazier hit a bucket in the paint to give UNCG a 5-0 run and a 22-17 lead, but a bucket by Chattanooga?s Shanara Hollinquest cut the lead to 19-22 with just under eight minutes in the half.
UNCG continued to press, coming up with a steal and a bucket on the other end, pushing the lead to 24-19 and Byrd hit a jumper but back-to-back points by Chattanooga tied the game at 26 apiece with four minutes remaining.
The Spartans stepped it up in the final three minutes of the half with buckets from Boone and Frazier and were able to tie the game at 34-34 with 1:22 left but UTC’s Brooke Hand hit a three-pointer with 0:47 seconds left and a bucket by Wade-Frey as time expired gave Chattanooga a 39-34 halftime advantage
The Spartans hit the road for the next two games, traveling to Furman for a televised contest on Saturday. Tip time is set for 3:30 pm. UNCG then heads to Statesboro to take on Georgia Southern Feb. 5.
Appalachian State 69, Furman 60
BOONE, N.C. -- Appalachian State University women's basketball took control with an 8-0 run just before halftime and never looked back en route to a 69-60 win over Furman on Monday evening at the Holmes Center.
Appalachian (11-11, 5-6 Southern Conference) used a 23-0 advantage in fast-break points and out-scored Furman (7-15, 2-9 SoCon) 34-8 in the paint to run away with the win.
The Mountaineers also picked up the advantage on the boards with 46 rebounds compared to 37 by the Paladins. Twenty of ASU’s rebounds came on the offensive end.
For the fifth-straight game junior Maria Grimes (Birmingham, Ala.) led the Mountaineers with 21 points, marking her fifth 20-plus game of the season. She added four steals and four assists. Senior Jaime Bennett (Woodstock, Ga.) led the team on the boards for the second-consecutive contest with 11 rebounds.
Junior Whitney Tossie (Oviedo, Fla.) and sophomore Whitney Ketner (Spartanburg, S.C.) joined Grimes in double-digits with 10 and 11 points, respectively. Senior Carleena Costner (Gastonia, N.C.) finished the night with eight points and added a career-high five steals.
Kali Holtfreter and Sarah Baker led the Furman offense with 12 and 11 points, respectively. Holtfreter tied a team high with five rebounds.
After Furman tied the game at 37 to open the second half, Appalachian used an 8-0 run to take a 45-37 lead with 14:32 to go in the game. A free throw by Opie snapped the Furman scoring drought at two and a half minutes to cut the lead to seven points at 45-38 with 14:13 to play. After another Paladin basket, ASU used another run, this time one of 5-0 to take a 10-point, 50-40 lead with just over 12 minutes to go.
The Mountaineers spoiled a 6-0 run by the Paladins with eight straight of their own to go up 58-46 with 5:15 to go.
Led by back-to-back three-pointers by Holtfreter and Baker, Furman pulled within six points at 64-58 with a minute to go in the game.
Appalachian held on in the end and went on to a 69-60 victory.
The Mountaineers jumped out to a quick 7-4 lead with 16:45 to go in the opening half of the game. The Paladins battled back to pull within two points at 13-11 with 12:45 to go and tied up the game at 15 with just under 10 minutes to go in the opening half.
ASU outscored Furman, 9-3 in the next five minutes to take a 24-18 lead with 5:13 remaining in the period. The Paladins scored four unanswered from that point to tie the game at 24 with 2:31 to go in the half before five-straight points by Grimes and an old-fashioned three-point play by Ketner helped give ASU a 34-26 lead with 32 seconds to go.
Adrienne Gilmore scored her first two baskets of the game in the final
17 seconds to cut the ASU lead to 34-31 heading into the locker rooms at halftime.
The Mountaineers hit the road once again as they head to Chattanooga, Tenn. To take on the Lady Mocs, Thursday, February 1 at 7 p.m.
Georgia Southern 82, Wofford 67
SPARTANBURG, S.C. -- Visiting Georgia Southern shot 35 second half foul shots, making 28, compared to a 8-of-11 second half outing by Wofford to rally past the Terriers for an 82-67 triumph Monday evening in Southern Conference women's basketball action inside Benjamin Johnson Arena in Spartanburg, S.C.
The Eagles, who received a 3-pointer just before the halftime buzzer from Shawnda Atwood, carried the momentum into the second stanza and dominated from the foul line. GSU had only two attempts from the charity stripe in the first half before the 35 shots after halftime.
Preseason All-SoCon selection Tiffany Brown hit 4-of-5 triples on the night on her way to a game-high 27 points. She finished as one of three Georgia Southern (8-14, 3-8 SoCon) players in double figures and was joined by Atwood with 16 and 14 points from Carolyn Whitney.
The first half was a back-and-forth affair, featuring five ties. Wofford's freshman Kelly Dwyer hit a 3-pointer following a Jennifer Weurding trey to cap a 12-6 Terrier spurt and give the hosts the largest advantage for either team in the opening frame at six, 16-10, with 11:36 remaining.
Georgia Southern would score the next six points before Dwyer hit her second 3-pointer of the contest at 7:32 to put Wofford (9-12, 3-8 SoCon) back on top. The Eagles, however, remained close and a shot from behind the arc by Brown put them ahead, 25-23, at the 3:14 mark. The Terriers kept fighting and a pair of free throws by K.C. Correll with :45 seconds left knotted the scoring at 31 apiece before Atwood's buzzer beater.
Early second half turnovers cost Wofford as it would turn the ball over on five times in a three-minute span but it was not until Chequilla Jessie converted a foul shot at 11:44 that either team held a double-digit lead. GSU went up 49-39 following her conversion before another triple and jumper from Weurding cut the gap back to five, 49-44, with 10:50 showing on the clock.
The Eagles pushed their lead to as high as 14, 64-50, on another trey from Brown on a 15-6 streak. However, Wofford battled back yet again and a jumper by Miller trimmed the margin to six, 71-65, with just over two minutes to go. The final 11 Georgia Southern points all came from the foul line.
Whitney finished 9-of-10 from the line with Brown hitting 7-of-9 and Ashley Melson scoring on all six of her attempts.
Miller registered a team-high 15 points for her sixth-straight double-figure scoring effort. She also finished as the team's leading scorer for the fifth consecutive contest.
Summer Nichols joined Miller in double digits with 10 points, while Terrier freshman Kathlyn Varno pulled in a team-high five rebounds.
Wofford will next play on the road for two-straight games, starting with a 2 p.m. tip Saturday at College of Charleston. Georgia Southern returns home Saturday for a conference tilt with Elon.
Western Carolina 77, Elon 66
Cullowhee, N.C. ? Sophomore transfer Brooke Johnson led a trio of Lady Catamounts in double figures, scoring a career-high 22 points as the Lady Catamounts rattled off their fourth-straight victory on Monday evening, dousing the Elon Phoenix, 77-66, at the Ramsey Center. The win coupled with Chattanooga’s triumph over UNC Greensboro (83-66) leaves the Lady Mocs and Western tied for first atop the Southern Conference standings, half a game ahead of the idle Davidson Wildcats, who happens to be WCU’s next opponent on Saturday evening.
Johnson scored WCU’s first 11 points en route to 18 in the first half, which surpassed her Lady Catamount career-best by a point in just 20 minutes. Johnson finished 6-of-7 from the floor with a career-best three, 3-pointers, adding a 7-for-7 showing from the free throw line and four defensive rebounds. She also blocked one shot to move into a tie for seventh with Teresa Braswell (1981-82) on the single-season blocks chart.
Sophomore Lauren Powell drained a pair of 3-pointers of her own to score 15 points, adding a career-high five assists, while junior guard Ashley Pellom continued her torrent streak, connecting on 6-of-7 from the field for the second-straight game to finish with 13 points. Pellom added four assists in the win to move into a tie for eighth-place on Western’s all-time career assists chart.
Junior Chevon Keith just missed double-digits with nine points and seven rebounds, while her classmate Jessika Johnson led with a game-high nine rebounds, eight of which came on the defensive end. Sophomore Kendra Eaton chipped in seven points and five rebounds, while freshman Kristen Feemster tied her career-high with four points in the victory.
Elon took an early 2-0 lead when Tiffany Davis stole a WCU pass and found the range on a fast-break lay-up, breaking a two-minute scoreless drought to open the game. Western, however, answered with a Brooke Johnson lay-up and foul for the old-fashioned three-point play to put the Lady Catamounts ahead, 3-2. The lay-in was the first 11-straight points for Johnson, including a pair of 3-pointers as the Seymour, Tenn., native outscored the Phoenix by herself over the first 8:14.
Leading by seven (11-4) at the 15:13 mark, the Phoenix used six-unanswered points to close back to within one, 11-10, holding WCU scoreless for four and a half minutes. Powell ended the drought with a shot from long range which ignited an 11-to-2 run to push Western ahead by 10, 22-12. Still up 10, 24-14, the Phoenix strung together 12-straight points to erase the deficit and pull ahead by two, 26-24, with four and a half to play before intermission. However, over the final four minutes, Western outscored Elon 14-to-2 to take a 10-point, 38-28, lead into the half.
Western shot 48-percent (12-of-25) from the field in the first half, including 4-of-5 from 3-point range for 80-percent and 10-of-12 from the free throw line, 83.3-percent. Elon countered with 34.4-percent (11-of-32) and was just 2-of-7 from downtown (28.6%).
Out of the half time locker room, Powell sank a lay-up and drew a foul six-seconds in to put Western up 13, prompting an Elon timeout. After the stoppage, the Phoenix tallied back-to-back jumpers to slice the deficit to nine, but that was as close as Elon would get over the final 20 minutes. WCU surged back ahead by double-figures on a 3-pointer by Lynsie Lamitie and the Lady Catamounts held the Phoenix at arms length the remainder of the game.
Like Western, Elon (9-13, 3-8 SoCon) put three players in double-figures led by a career-high 18 from the freshman Davis and 10 apiece from senior Nikko King and junior Nicole Allison. King added eight rebounds, seven of which came on the defensive end, with Davis adding six boards, four assists and four steals.
Elon’s 66 points marked the first time since Nov. 30 of this season that the Phoenix had scored over 60 points. The Phoenix had been unbeaten when surpassing the 60-point plateau. Western, on the other hand, improved to 9-0 when scoring 70-or-more points in a contest.
The Lady Catamounts out rebounded Elon, 39-to-31, and finished with its best shooting performance of the season, 53.1-percent (26-of-49).
Elon returns to action this Saturday (Feb. 3) at Georgia Southern at 5:00 pm. Western hits the road for a pair of crucial games in the SoCon race this week, visiting Davidson on Saturday, in the Belk Arena at 6:00 pm and traveling to Boone to face arch-rival Appalachian State on Monday (Feb. 5) at 7:00 pm. Both games will be broadcast by the Catamount Sports Network, with Saturday’s game airing on WWCU-FM, Power 90dot5 in Cullowhee (www.WWCUFM.com) and Monday night’s affair carried on www.CatamountSports.com.