Wofford 56, College of Charleston 47
SPARTANBURG, S.C. -- The Wofford women's basketball team garnered a 56-47 victory Saturday afternoon in the Benjamin Johnson Arena against Southern Conference foe College of Charleston in the first-ever home televised women's contest in program history. The game was broadcast live nationally by FOX College Sports and on a one-hour tape-delay basis by Comcast/Charter Sports Southeast (CSS) with Tom Werme handling play-by-play, Sonya Beeler-Willhoite doing color commentary and Ralph Patterson on the sideline.
The Terriers used a total team effort in the victory but were led by a 14-point outing from sophomore Summer Nichols. Nichols hit four field goals and 6-of-9 from the foul line, while also grabbing seven rebounds in the win. Her free throws with 13 seconds left iced the final margin.
College of Charleston (6-8, 2-2 SoCon) started the game with a 6-1 lead, spurred by a pair of buckets from Christina Williams and another from Nikki Williams. Wofford, however, would not led the lead grow more than five as a 4-0 run cut the deficit to one, 6-5, before Jade Hughes hit a 3-pointer to put the Cougars up four, 9-5, with 16:16 left in the half.
The Terriers would hold CofC without a point for the next four-and-a-half minutes and used a 6-0 spurt, including a pair of charity tosses and a triple from sophomore Liz Miller, to claim an 11-9 edge.
Another Wofford (7-7, 1-3 SoCon) trey, this time from senior Mary Jo Yee from near mid-court as the shot clock expired, provided the Terriers with a 14-13 lead at the 9:32 mark and an advantage they would not relinquish the remainder of the contest. Junior Kelsi Koenig added an old-fashioned three-point play a short time later to give Wofford a four-point lead, 17-13.
The Cougars, however, kept battling and trimmed the deficit to two, 22-20, as Erica Williams hit a jumper with 3:30 left. Wofford answered with a 6-2 run to close the half as senior Susanna Paul converted a layup as the clock showed zeros and the hosts entered the break with a 28-22 edge.
Nichols then jump started a 4-0 Terrier streak to push the gap to 10, 32-22, early in the second half. Miller hit a 3-pointer at 16:38 to give the Terriers their first 11-point cushion and the squad equaled that lead twice more later in the stanza.
After Wofford's last 11-point lead, 41-30, with 13:29 to go, the College of Charleston answered with a 13-6 spurt to cut the deficit to four, 47-43, on another trey by Hughes.
The Terriers again countered and closed the game on a 9-4 run, scoring five of the points on the foul line.
Hughes and Christina Williams paced the Cougars with 13 points apiece, while Melissa Chambers grabbed a game-high tying eight boards and matched teammate Erika Smith's effort with two blocked shots.
Wofford also received nine points from Miller and eight off the bench from senior Jennifer Weurding. Koenig equaled Chambers with eight boards, while Weurding had seven and three blocked shots.
The Terriers also forced 20 turnovers and swiped 14 steals in picking up their first Southern Conference win of the season.
Wofford will return to action at 6 p.m. Tuesday when it hosts Elon inside the Benjamin Johnson Arena. College of Charleston will next play at 7 p.m. Monday in Greenville, S.C., against Furman.
Chattanooga 84, Appalachian State 74
BOONE, N.C. ? Appalachian State University women’s basketball cut a 20-point first half Chattanooga lead to four late in the second half, but it wasn’t enough as the Mountaineers fell to the Lady Mocs, 84-74, in Southern Conference play Saturday at the Holmes Center.
Appalachian fell to 8-7 overall and 2-2 in league play with the loss.
Chattanooga, which had its 33-game SoCon regular season winning streak snapped on Tuesday, improved to 10-5 on the season and 3-1 in the league. The Mountaineers have now lost 17-straight games to the Lady Mocs as their last win in the series came during the 1998-99 season.
Chattanooga head coach Wes Moore picked up his 400th career win and his 200th win at UTC with the victory. Moore, who is in his 10th season with the Lady Mocs, is 16-2 against the Mountaineers.
The Mountaineers forced 21 UTC turnovers and converted them into 14 points. Appalachian was also solid on the boards as it out-rebounded its opponent, 40-35 with 19 of them coming on the offensive end.
Senior Jaime Bennett (Woodstock, Ga.) came two rebounds short of entering the ASU top-10 for single-game rebounds as she pulled down a career-high 18 boards. The 5-11 forward added seven points, two assists and a blocked shot.
Four Mountaineers scored in double-digits led by junior Whitney Tossie (Oviedo, Fla.) and freshman GiGi Thomas (Tallahassee, Fla.) with 18 points apiece. The nation’s steals leader, Tossie chipped in four steals and five assists, while Thomas added three steals, five rebounds and two assists.
Junior Maria Grimes (Birmingham, Ala.) and senior Carleena Costner (Gastonia, N.C.) added 11 points apiece. Costner hit 3-of-4 from beyond the three-point arc and finished a perfect 2-of-2 at the charity stripe.
Appalachian held the conference’s scoring leader, Alex Anderson, to nearly five points below her average with 15. She added a team-high 12 rebounds. Laura Hall led all scorers and tied her career high with 26 points as she hit 3-of-5 from beyond the three-point line and went a perfect 9-for-9 at the free throw line.
Jenaya Wade-Fray added 10 points for UTC, while Brooke Hand chipped in nine points and a team-high three steals.
Hall alone tied the Mountaineers in the first 11 minutes of the game as Chattanooga jumped out to its largest lead of the game of 20 points at 33-13 with just under nine minutes to go in the opening half. Appalachian countered with a 7-0 run of its own to cut the lead to 13 at 33-20 with eight minutes to go in the half.
ASU came as close as eight point in the first half before UTC escaped the first half with a 53-36 lead.
Bennett hit a jumper in the first 10 seconds of the second half for the Mountaineers, but the Lady Mocs scored two quick layups to extend its lead to 17 points at 57-40 with 18 minutes to go in the game.
With the score at 66-48 and the momentum in the visitor’s favor, Tossie took the game in her own hands as she scored six points and grabbed two steals in the next three minutes of action to cut the lead to 12 at 66-54 with 10:51 to play.
UTC scored its next five points at the charity stripe and held a 71-59 lead with 9:30 to go in the game. From that point ASU took advantage of three-straight three-point misses from UTC to go on an 8-0 run and pull within four points at 71-67 with eight minutes to play.
The Mountaineers hung tough and cut the lead to three points at 74-71, three minutes later. But the Lady Mocs used a 10-0 run in the next four minutes and held an 84-71 lead with just under two minutes remaining in the ballgame. Tossie hit a three-pointer on the next ASU possession to pull within 10, but neither team would score in the final minute and a half as UTC extended its winning streak over Appalachian to 17 games with an 84-74 victory.
The Mountaineers will look to end a three-game losing streak to Western Carolina as they travel to Cullowhee, N.C. to take on the Catamounts, Monday, January 8 at 7 p.m. at the Ramsey Center.
UNC Greensboro 67, Furman 53
Greensboro, N.C. -- Kristen Boone scored a career-high 27 points and Irene Otamiri nailed four three-pointers as UNC Greensboro defeated Furman 67-53 on Saaturday afternoon at Fleming Gymnasium.
Boone, the Southern Conference leader in steals, recorded six thefts to lead the Spartans, who recorded 14 steals and forced Furman into a season-high 25 turnovers.
Maggie McKemie led the way for Furman with 10 points and nine rebounds. Katie Johnson added nine points to go along with seven boards.
Leading by seven points at halftime, UNCG started the second half on a 10-0 run over five and a half minutes to make the score 43-26. After trailing by as many as 18 points at the 5:17 mark, Furman cut into the lead with a 10-1 run to trim the lead to 9 points at the 2:34 mark. Otamiri hit a crucial three-pointer at the 2:21 mark to push the lead back to double-digits for the Spartans.
UNCG scored 34 points off turnovers, and had 12 fast break points. Furman held a 29-4 edge in bench points.
Adrienne Gilmore recorded a career-high four assists against just one turnover. Katie Johnson added three blocked shots, with Jessica Lange contibuting two blocks.
With the win, UNCG improves to 9-5 overall, 2-2 in the Southern Conference. Furman falls to 5-10 on the season, 0-4 in conference action. The Lady Paladins return home on Monday as Furman plays host to College of Charleston at 7:00 p.m. at Timmons Arena.
Davidson 75, Western Carolina 60
Cullowhee, N.C. ? Western Carolina senior Lynsie Lamitie tied her career high with 10 points as two Lady Catamounts reached double-figures on Saturday afternoon, but a 21-8 Davidson run to open the second half and an 11-0 spurt inside the final five minutes proved to be too much as the Lady Catamounts fell, 75-60, in Southern Conference action in the Ramsey Center.
Trailing by seven at intermission, Western (8-7, 2-2 SoCon) used an old-fashioned three-point play from junior Monique Dawson a minute and a half into the second period to slice the Wildcat lead to four, 33-29. The two teams traded buckets until leading by six, 38-32, Davidson rattled off 10-straight points as a part of the rally to pull ahead 16 en route to a 20-point advantage, 54-34, at the media timeout at 11:32.
After the stoppage, Western managed a spurt of its own, scoring 10 unanswered points as a part of an 18-to-4 run that pulled the Lady Catamounts to within six, 58-52, with 5:48 remaining in regulation. However, that was as close as WCU would get as the league-leading Wildcats retaliated with 11-consecutive points to lead by 17 and held on by making 4-of-6 from the free throw line inside the final minute to secure the 15-point win.
Dawson led Western with 14 points, adding four steals and a pair of assists, while Lamitie just missed a double-double as she tied her career-high with her best SoCon performance with 10 points and a career-best nine rebounds. Sophomore Lauren Powell finished with nine points, eight of which came in the first half, with her classmate, Brooke Johnson, tallying seven points, six rebounds and a pair of blocked shots.
After falling behind quickly, 6-0, Powell put WCU on the board with back-to-back 3-pointers to pull to within two, 8-6, then tied the game on a pair of free throws by Kendra Eaton. Junior guard Ashley Pellom gave Western its first lead, 10-8, draining a jumper at the 14:41 mark of the first. The lead was short-lived, though, as Davidson scored 10-unanswered to erase its two-point deficit and pull ahead by eight, 18-10, midway through the first 20 minutes.
The teams would trade buckets over the next 10 minutes until the closing seconds of the half. Brooke Johnson was whistled for a personal foul and Dawson was tagged with a technical foul after getting entangled with a Davidson player near mid-court giving the Wildcats, who were leading by just three at the time, four free throws. Davidson’s Tia Washington connected on all four charity tosses which resulted in the seven-point, 33-26 edge at intermission.
Davidson (13-2, 4-0 SoCon) which won its 10th-straight game, put four in double figures led by 17 from junior guard Katie Hamilton, who missed all of last season with an ACL injury. Junior Danielle Hemerka finished with 13, with sophomore Kelly Gassie tallying a dozen and Washington chipping in 10 points, four assists and four steals.
Western will play its first back-to-back home games of the season as it hosts arch-rival, Appalachian State, at 7:00 pm on Monday, Jan. 8 in the Ramsey Center. Fans can follow all of the action on the Catamount Sports Network by logging on to www.CatamountSports.com.
Elon 55, Georgia Southern 50
ELON, N.C. ? Nikko King ripped off a career-high 17 rebounds as Elon out-battled Georgia Southern for a 55-50 Southern Conference women’s basketball triumph Saturday night at Alumni Gym.
King tallied her previous best of 13 boards versus High Point last month. She also made a career-best seven free throws while teammate Urysla Cotton recorded a pair of career highs by posting 11 points and eight caroms for the Phoenix (7-7 overall, 2-2 Southern Conference).
Elon improved to 4-3 all-time versus the Eagles (7-8, 2-2), all in SoCon play. The Phoenix also improved to 7-0 when leading at halftime this season. Elon also knocked down a season-high 20 free throws in the victory.
Georgia Southern soared to an early 8-0 lead on a lay-up by Carolyn Whitney with 17:24 to play in the first half. Trailing 13-5 with 10:27 to go in the period, Elon reeled off 11-straight points to claim a 16-13 edge on a pair of free throws by Cotton with 4:44 left in the opening stanza. Tiffany Brown responded with a fast-break lay-up and a three-pointer to give the Eagles an 18-16 advantage with 1:46 remaining before the break. The Phoenix answered with a 15-4 run to take a 31-22 lead on a lay-up by Shamica Spears with 13:36 left in the second half.
Georgia Southern received a jumper by Christa Waterman and a three-point bucket by Jessica Geiger to pull within 31-27 with 11:41 remaining. Elon fashioned a 12-5 spurt to extend its edge to 43-32 on a fast-break lay-up by Nicole Allison with 6:56 left to play. The Eagles replied with an 11-3 run to draw within 46-43 on a basket by Brown, but could inch no closer. The Phoenix promptly reeled off six consecutive points to fatten the lead to 52-43 on a pair of charity shots by King at the 1:42 mark.
Rachel Hester canned a three-point field goal in the first half, marking Elon’s 185th consecutive contest with at least one three-pointer made. It also marked the only game this year in which the Phoenix only netted one three-point basket. The last time Elon was shut out from three-point land was in a contest at N.C. State on Nov. 18, 2000.
The Phoenix held the Eagles to 26.6 percent (21 of 79) from the field, marking the lowest field goal percentage for an Elon opponent so far this season. The previous low was 32.7 percent by Campbell early in the campaign.
Georgia Southern out-rebounded Elon 57-53 and surrendered 20 turnovers to 21 by the Phoenix. The Eagles also out-scored Elon 30-24 in the paint, 17-11 off turnovers and 15-11 on second chances. The Phoenix bench out-scored the GSU bench by a 30-14 margin. Elon received 10 points from Allison and nine points from King as well as nine points, six rebounds and four steals by Tiffany Davis. Georgia Southern was led by Chequilla Jessie (14 points, 13 caroms) and Brown (12 points, eight boards).
The Phoenix hit the road Tuesday for a 6 p.m. conference clash at Wofford. The Eagles play at UNC Greensboro Monday.