Elon 66, Wofford 57
SPARTANBURG, S.C. -- Elon used fast-break layups and put-backs off missed attempts to pull away from Wofford and earn a 66-57 Southern Conference women's basketball victory Saturday afternoon inside the Benjamin Johnson Arena in Spartanburg, S.C.
The Phoenix created turnovers on the defensive end and then raced to the other end for nearly uncontested layups. Sophomore Tiffany Davis and senior Tierra Bumbrey led the charge, netting 19 and 17 points, respectively, off a combined nine steals. The pair hit 13-of-31 field goals, while Davis also knocked down six of her 10 attempts from the foul line.
Elon (3-5, 1-0 SoCon) finished with a 12-of-18 (66.7 percent) mark from the charity stripe, compared to just 0-of-3 for the Terriers.
Wofford, however, did create 18 Phoenix turnovers and scored 16 points off of those mistakes, including a pair of shot-clock violations.
Junior Liz Miller led all scorers with a season-high 20 points, including four 3-pointers. It marks the second time in her career she has hit the 20-point plateau and just two shy of her career-best 22 points against Western Carolina Dec. 17, 2006. She was the only Terrier in double figures.
Classmate Kate Dempsey tallied a career-best seven blocked shots in a career-high 33 minutes. Wofford (2-3, 0-1 SoCon) finished with a 12-4 edge on blocks, marking the second-straight game in which the Terriers have surpassed the double-digit barrier after 11 at Virginia Tech Tuesday.
Davis paced the Phoenix with her 19 points on six field goals and six free throws. Bumbrey added 17, while Amber Wall and Shashonna Moore joined Davis as team leaders with five rebounds.
Dempsey and Summer Nichols led Wofford with seven boards apiece, while Miller collected five of the team's 14 assists. Sophomore Kelly Dwyer grabbed four of the team's six steals.
The Terriers opened by taking a 7-4 lead on a Dwyer 3-pointer three minutes in, but six consecutive points by Davis gave the Phoenix an advantage they would not relinquish. The margin swelled to as high as 10 in the first half, 27-17, on another Davis layup, but Wofford netted the period's final six points to make it a four-point halftime score, 30-26.
Nichols brought the Terriers within one, 32-31, at 17:22 of the second frame, but a 17-4 Elon run opened the scoring and gave the Phoenix their largest lead, 49-35, at 9:41 which was capped off by an old-fashioned 3-point play by Urysla Cotton.
Wofford will return to action at 7 p.m. Tuesday when it travels to Boiling Springs, N.C., for a meeting with Gardner-Webb.
College of Charleston 74, Presbyterian 51
Charleston, S.C. ? Brooke Kotcella scored 15 points, while Tonia Gerty added a career-high 13 to lead the College of Charleston women’s basketball team to the 74-51 win over Presbyterian this afternoon in front of 293 fans at the John Kresse Arena.
Charleston earns its first win of the season to go to 1-4, while Presbyterian drops to 0-7.
The Cougars opened the half with a 10-0 run in the first three minutes of the game and extended it to a 24-4 lead with just under 10 minutes remaining before intermission. Charleston forced nine turnovers during the stretch, while the Blue Hose suffered through a poor shooting performance, missing on 13 shot attempts in the first 11 minutes of play. The Cougars held the double-digit advantage for the remainder of the half and went into the locker room with the 17-point 39-22 lead. Presbyterian shot just 30.0 percent in the first half, compared to the season-high 42.4 first-half shooting percentage by the Cougars.
Presbyterian opened the second half with a 7-3 run to cut the lead to 13 points, 42-29, but that would be as close as the Blue Hose would get as the Cougars used a 13-0 run from 16:18 to 10:22 to take the lead to 53-29. A basket by Sharie Hopkins ended the drought at 10:05 but by then the damage was done. Charleston opened up its lead to 29 points, 70-41, before settling with the 23-point, 74-51 win. The Cougars shot a season-high 54.5 percent in the second-half and held the Blue Hose to just 33.3 percent.
Charleston shot 47.3 percent from the field for the game, compared to 31.5 percent for Presbyterian. The Cougars and Blue Hose had solid performances from behind the free throw line, Charleston going 16-for-20 and PC going 16-for-24. CofC was six-for-13 in three pointers, while Presbyterian was one-for-four. The Cougars took the rebounding edge, 40-35 and had five less turnovers, 26-22.
Following Gerty and Kotcella, two Cougars posted nine points in the game, Deidra Jones and Megan King. Jones led in rebounds with six on the afternoon.
Lea Smith led the Blue Hose with 13 points, while Hopkins had 12. Amy Jones was the other player in double-figures with 11. Three Blue Hose led in rebounds with six, Hopkins, Kristin Kidd and Taylor Price.
Charleston hosts USC Upstate Monday, Dec. 3rd at 7:00 p.m., while Presbyterian travels to South Carolina State for a 5:30 p.m. tip-off Tuesday, Dec. 4th.
Georgia Southern 81, USC Upstate 66
STATESBORO, Ga. ? Tiffany Brown and Ashley Melson combined for 38 points as the Georgia Southern women’s basketball team soared past USC Upstate, 81-66, Saturday afternoon, at Hanner Fieldhouse.
Georgia Southern improves to 3-5 on the season, snapping a three-game skid and adding another win to its unblemished home record, 2-0. USC Upstate drops its second straight game as it falls to 2-5 in the young season.
Brown (Waxhaw, N.C.) paced the team with 25 points and six rebounds, followed by Melson’s (Newnan, Ga.) 13 points and six boards. Five of Melson’s rebounds came on the offensive side.
Seniors Shawnda Atwood (Pensacola, Fla.) and Chequilla Jessie (Sanford, Fla.) also pulled down six rebounds, apiece, as the Lady Eagles out-rebounded the Spartans 50-39.
USC Upstate was led by Oceana Jackson with 22 points and nine rebounds and was followed by Shanea Wyant with 18 points.
Both teams battled back and forth during the first half with seven lead changes and six ties. Georgia Southern produced an 11-point lead in the first stanza and went into the locker room with a 41-32 advantage. Brown led the team at the half with 14 points, while USC Upstate’s Wyant tallied 13 points at the break.
In second-half action, the Georgia Southern defense managed to hold Wyant to three points, but in her stead, teammate Jackson stepped up to score 19 of her 22 points for the Spartans.
Georgia Southern’s reserves made a changing impact in the battle, scoring 25 of its 48 bench points in the second half, including 11 points off the hands of Tiffany Brown. The Lady Eagles also pulled down 27 rebounds in the second stanza, compared to Upstate’s 16.
Georgia Southern’s largest lead of the game came at the 11:22 mark when Atwood buried a three-pointer to put the Lady Eagles up 59-43, 16 points.
USC Spartanburg managed to chip away at the GSU lead, cutting it in half to just eight points, 65-57, after surging on a 14-6 run over the next six minutes. Jackson netted 11 points during that span.
But a pair of back-to-back three-pointers by Brown and sophomore guard Elise Whitney (Duluth, Ga.) gave the Lady Eagles a double-digit lead, 71-57, with 4:30 remaining to secure the non-conference win.
Depth was key in the victory as Georgia Southern claimed a 48-14 advantage in points off the bench.
Georgia Southern also led in field goal shooting, making 30-of-73 (41.1%) attempts from the field, including nine three-pointers, compared to Upstate’s 23-of-64 (35.9%) shooting from the field.
Sophomore guard Carolyn Whitney (Duluth, Ga.) dished out a team-high five assists on the day.
Georgia Southern will take a week off from competition and will return back to action at Georgia Tech, Sunday, December 9th at 1 p.m.
Alabama A&M 67, Chattanooga 63
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. -- The Chattanooga women’s basketball squad let a second half 13-point lead slide away, falling to Alabama A&M 67-63 in the Bulldogs home opener Saturday night at Elmore Gymnasium.
Alex Anderson (Stone Mountain, Ga.) led three Chattanooga players in double figures with a game-high 20 points and tallied her second double-double of the season with 10 rebounds. She shot 70 percent in the first half for 14 points on 7-of-10 from the floor. Jenaya Wade-Fray (Madison, Ala.), playing in front of a home crowd, hit two 3-pointers, both in the first half for 14 points, a season-high.
Chattanooga led by eight at the half and quickly built the lead to 13, but the Bulldogs would start to chip away and cut the lead to single digits with 15:59 to play. Alabama A&M would get the lead down to four on a 3-point play by Katrick Williams and a free throw from Ashley Pearson just two minutes later to make it 47-43.
Over the next nine minutes to two teams would battle it out with the Lady Mocs unable to get ahead by more than five until Tagan Hatchett (Acworth, Ga.) connected on a jumper in the lane to put the Lady Mocs up 62-55 with 4:57 to play. That would be UTC’s final shot of the game and the Bulldogs would outscore UTC 12-1 to close out the game. The Lady Mocs went 0-for-4 over the final five minutes of play and were 1-for-3 from the free throw line.
Shanara Hollinquest was the third Chattanooga player in double digits with 12 points, but she would foul out with 4:38 to play. The Lady Mocs were whistled for eight fouls over that time span while A&M was called just twice.
Katrich Williams led Alabama A&M with 16 points and Felicia Drummond had 13. Ashleonte Williams, whose free throws with 1:55 to play gave Alabama A&M the lead for good, had 12 points and a team-high eight rebounds. Christian Malone, who connected on a pair of 3-pointers, was the fourth Bulldog in double figures.
The Lady Mocs were 26-of-55 from the floor, outshooting the Bulldogs 47.3 percent to 39.1. Chattanooga had a slight advantage on the boards outrebounding A&M 45-43, but the difference was at the line as UTC was 5-for-10 from the charity stripe while the Bulldogs made 16 of their 28 attempts, six in the final two minutes.
Chattanooga will have the next two weeks off for finals. They will return to action on Dec. 15 when they host Alabama at the McKenzie Arena. Transfer LaCondra Mason will make her debut in a Chattanooga uniform. Game time is now set for 1 p.m. and will be carried live by Fox 61.