Chattanooga 68, Murray State 58
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. ? The Lady Mocs advanced to the championship game of the Panera Bread Challenge with a 68-58 win over Murray State at the McKenzie Arena.
Chattanooga (4-1) started the game with 9-0 run and spread it out to as much as 10 before the Racers (2-2) pushed back and cut the lead to 24-22 with 7:26 to play in the first half. Twin sisters Paige and Amber Guffey combined for all four of Murray State’s four 3-pointers in the opening half, pulling their team back into the game that had seemed to get away early. The Lady Mocs led by a slim four-point halftime margin.
In the second half, Chattanooga spread the lead to 13 twice before Murray State climbed back in, cutting the margin to five on a jumper from Ashley Hayes with 6:40 to play at 56-51. Brooke Hand’s first 3-pointer made in 11 attempts rolled around the rim before falling in, giving UTC it’s largest lead of the game at 68-53. Murray State scored the final five points of the game.
Alex Anderson led all scorers with 24 points and had eight rebounds. Shanara Hollinquest was the only other Chattanooga player in double-figures with 13 points, making 6-of-9 from the floor. Jenaya Wade-Fray just missed her first double-double with nine points and a career-high 11 rebounds. Hand was 1-of-11 from beyond the arc and UTC hit just 4-for-23 for the game. Laura Hall dished out six assists for Chattanooga and Anderson tacked on three more blocked shots.
Ashley Hayes had a double-double for the Racers with 12 points and a game-high 12 rebounds. Amber Guffey led Murray State with 19 points and had six boards while Alaina Lee had 10 points with four rebounds and two assists. Paige Guffey had a team best four assists.
Chattanooga outrebounded the Racers 44-35 and won the turnover battle with a season-low eight to Murray State’s 11.
Murray State will face Delaware (1-4) in the 5:00 p.m. Consolation Game Saturday evening and the Lady Mocs will take on Louisville (2-2) in the Championship matchup immediately following. All games can be heard live on the radio at WDOD-AM 1310 or online around the world at www.GoMocs.com.
Arkansas 77, Georgia Southern 51
SAN ANTONIO ? The Georgia Southern women’s basketball team fell to Arkansas, 77-51 Friday night, in the first of two games at the UTSA Thanksgiving Classic in San Antonio.
The Lady Razorbacks improve to 4-0 on the season, while Georgia Southern drops to 2-3 overall early in the season.
Georgia Southern was paced by sophomore guard Elise Whitney (Duluth,
Ga.) and junior guard Ashley Melson (Newnan, Ga.) with 12 points, apiece. Elise Whitney went 4-of-6 from behind the three-point arc for all of her career-high points. Melson pulled down a team-high six rebounds on the night along with teammate Chequilla Jessie (Sanford, Fla.). Sophomore guard Carolyn Whitney (Duluth, Ga.) followed with 11 points on 4-of-8 shooting.
Lauren Ervin tallied a game-high 17 points and pulled down 10 rebounds to complete a double-double for the Lady Razorbacks. Charity Ford and Ayana Brereton scored 13 and 11 points, respectively.
In first half action, Arkansas jumped out to an early 12-0 lead before the six-minute drought was broken by Elise Whitney’s three-pointer with
14:02 on the clock.
But Arkansas continued to widen the gap taking advantage of their strong presence inside the paint and good shooting from the field. The Lady Razorbacks outrebounded the Lady Eagles 24-14 and went into the locker room with a 37-21 advantage.
Georgia Southern struggled from the field, shooting 7-of-29 (24.1%) while the Lady Razorbacks connected on 15-of-30 (50.0 %) field goal attempts.
Elise Whitney’s nine points in the first half, all off three-pointers, was the team-high going into the break. Lauren Ervin led all scorers with 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting from the field.
“We couldn’t get five people on the court at the same time with the same purpose, which was to play hard and try to accomplish something out there,” said head coach Rusty Cram. “I thought we were very lethargic to start it off 12-0. I thought we had the looks, but we just didn’t put it in the hole.”
A bucket to start off the second half by Melson closed the deficit to 14 points, but the Lady Razorbacks responded with a pair of consecutive three-pointers by Ford to extend the Arkansas lead to 20 points, 43-23.
The Lady Eagles improved upon their first half dropping 13-of-33 field goals, but Arkansas responded with just as many buckets to secure only its second victory over the Lady Eagles in as many meetings.
“Tonight, Elise came in and gave us a big lift,” said Cram. “I thought Melson had a good second half, taking the ball to the hole and showing some athleticism. I was pleased with that, but overall, I thought we were very passive.”
Arkansas led the rebounds category 49-32, and tallied 21 second-chance points, compared to GSU’s eight.
Georgia Southern will face tournament host UTSA, Saturday at 4 p.m. (CT) in its second of two games during the weekend’s tournament. Fans can follow the live video of the game on-line via www.goutsa.com.
Boston University 69, UNC Greensboro 42
GREENSBORO, N.C. ?The UNC Greensboro women’s basketball team fell to Boston University, 69-42 in the first game of the 2007 UNCG Thanksgiving Classic on Friday afternoon in Fleming Gym.
UNCG (0-4) was led by Ashley Mullins, Gini Grimsely and Jasmine Dixon who each tallied eight points in the loss. Grimsley also tallied six rebounds to lead the Spartans.
Jesyka Burks-Wiley led Boston University (4-1) with 19 points, with 15 points coming in the second half. She was 7-of-9 from the floor and had seven rebounds in the win. Aly Hinton was also in double-figures with 10 points in the win.
“Boston University is a well-coached, skilled team and they showed that this afternoon, said head coach Lynne Agee.” We learned a lot about ourselves this afternoon and will have to come to play tomorrow.”
We are asking people to play roles that they aren’t used to playing and we are at the point where we need to get people in that are going to score and rebound to make a difference for us.”
UNCG started the game quite slow and found themselves down 14-2 midway through the half, as they went almost nine minutes without a field goal. The Spartans couldn’t stop Boston University’s shooters, especially Cheri Raffo and Christine Kinneary who shot 75 percent and 50 percent from the floor respectively in the first half.
BU was 15-of-30 from the floor, good for 50.0 percent shooting while UNCG was only 5-of-22 for 22.7 percent. The Spartans were able to get a little momentum before halftime and went on a 14-10 run to go into the lockeroom trailing 33-17.
UNCG was able to keep the rebounds close in the first stanza and tallied 15 rebounds to BU’s 20 in the first half. The Spartans found a spark in Monique Floyd off the bench; the Fairmont, NC native tallied five points and two rebounds in the first half.
UNCG’s 22.7 field goal percentage in the first half marked the second lowest percentage of the season. The Spartans shot 18. 8 percent in the first half in a loss to No. 9 Duke.
UNCG came out shooting in the second half and was able to get the lead to 17 points on a three-point bucket the from Gini Grimsley, her first of the afternoon, with just under 17 minutes remaining. The Terriers wouldn’t go away and pushed their lead back up to 21 points on buckets from Wiley-Burks just before the second media timeout of the half.
Grimsely began to get hot from behind the arc with her second three-pointer of the afternoon to cut the lead to 23-41 at the 15:30 mark of the half. The Terriers seemed to have an answer for every UNCG shot and led by 22 points at the 14 minute mark of the half.
Ashley Mullins ended a three minute UNCG scoring drought with a three pointer through the right side to cut the lead to 57-30 and hit a jumper to make it 57-32 on the next possession. UNCG kept the momentum with an offensive foul on BU. Mullins hit a long two; coupled with a free throw from Jasmine Dixon to cut the lead to 57-34 with a little over five minutes remaining.
BU responded with a bucket but Hyson hit a bucket in the paint on UNCG’s next possession but the Terriers responded with a three-point bucket to keep the lead at 26 points. UNCG closed with five free throws but it wasn’t enough as BU collected their fourth win of the season.
Boston University had a commanding advantage in the paint. The Terriers had 30 points in the paint and recorded 24 points off of turnovers. The Spartans recorded 14 points in the paint and only eight points off of turnovers.
BU’s Burks-Wiley had the hot hand in the second half. She was 1-of-3 from the floor in the first half but rebounded in the second half for 15 points to lead the Terriers.
The Spartans will take on the loser of the game between North Carolina A&T and UNC Asheville Sunday at 1 pm in the consolation game.