Western Claims Share of SoCon Regular Season Title, #1 Seed with 73-67 Win over UNCG
Cullowhee, N.C. ? Five Lady Catamounts scored in double figures as Western Carolina held off a feverish UNC Greensboro rally over the final two minutes on Saturday afternoon to claim its first-ever Southern Conference regular season championship, downing the Spartans, 73-67, at the Ramsey Center.
The win tied a WCU school-record for victories in a single-season with 21, tying the 2002-03 and 1977-78 Lady Catamounts. Also, Western’s 15 wins in conference play set a school benchmark, eclipsing the 14 victories from the ’02-03 season.
By virtue of its 68-49 home win over Wofford, the Chattanooga Lady Mocs will share WCU’s regular season crown. However, with its head-to-head seasonal sweep of UTC, the Lady Catamounts will enter next week’s SoCon tournament as the top seed and will play the second game on the tournament’s second day (Wednesday, Feb. 28).
Although it was Senior Day for WCU’s Erin May and Lynsie Lamitie, it was the junior class which stole the show to send the seniors out as champions. WCU’s four, three-year players combined for 49 points, 24 rebounds, eight assists and all 11 of Western’s steals in the game.
Chevon Keith led the way, finishing with 15 points on 7-of-10 shooting and 10 rebounds to post her fifth double-double of the season. Her classmate, Monique Dawson scored eight (8-of-12) of her 14 points from the free throw line and matched her career-high with six assists. Ashley Pellom and Jessika Johnson each tallied 10 points apiece with Pellom adding five rebounds and a career-best five steals.
Rounding out Western’s double-digit scorers was sophomore Brooke Johnson, who just missed a double-double with 10 points, half of which came from the free throw line, and eight boards. The Seymour, Tenn., native added two blocked shots to give her 39 for the season, moving her one shy of tying for fifth on WCU’s single-season chart.
After shooting 52-percent in the opening 20 minutes but still only managing to lead by five at intermission, Western pulled ahead by nine, 42-33, early in the second half. However, the Lady Catamounts were outscored 16-to-6 over an eight minute span as the Spartans took their only lead of the second stanza, 49-48, at 11:17. Western responded with a 15-to-5 spurt of its own, capped by a 3-pointer by Keith to grab its largest lead of the game, 11 points at 64-53 margin with just under five and a half to play.
The scoreboard remained the same for over two minutes of back-and-forth action before the Spartans (20-8, 13-5 SoCon) began a feverish rally. Junior Kristen Boone, who finished with a game-high 25 points, and senior Jasmine Byrd combined for UNCG’s final 14 points, including three free throws and three 3-pointers to slice the deficit as low as two, 66-64, following a Boone trey with 52 seconds to play. After consecutive free throws by Pellom, Byrd buried her second 3-pointer of the flurry to again pull UNCG to within a pair, 69-67.However, that was the last time the Spartans would score as WCU iced the game from the charity stripe.
All told, Western connected on 9-of-10 free throw attempts inside the final minute to hold on for the victory and earn the championship.
Boone shot 8-of-14 from the field, including a 3-for-6 showing from beyond the 3-point arc, while Byrd finished with 19 points on five treys before fouling out inside the final minute. Senior Kaleah Latham finished with seven points and a team-best seven boards.
Western managed to shoot 44.9-percent from the field for the game and out rebounded UNCG by a dozen, 45-33, to overcome a season-high 28 turnovers.
As the top seed in next week’s SoCon Tournament, Western will face the winner of the No. 8 versus No. 9 seed at approximately Noon on Wednesday. Currently the College of Charleston and Furman are battling to see which team will be the designated home team as the higher seed, but both are locked into that night cap game of the tournament’s opening day, playing at approximately 9:00 pm on Tuesday.
LADY MOCS DOWN WOFFORD TO CLAIM A SHARE OF EIGHTH TITLE
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -- The Chattanooga women’s basketball team downed Wofford 68-49 in front of 1,673 fans Saturday night to claim a share of its eighth consecutive Southern Conference regular season title at the McKenzie Arena.
The Lady Mocs close out the season at 15-3 in the SoCon, tied with Western Carolina for the regular season title, a first for the Catamounts. Western Carolina swept both games from UTC this season and earned the top seed in the conference tournament next week in Charleston, S.C. This marks the first time in eight years that the Lady Mocs have received a seed lower than first.
After both teams traded shots to open the game, Alex Anderson knocked down the first of her two 3-pointers in the game, sparking a 22-4 run to put the Lady Mocs up 24-6 at the 11:12 mark of the first half. Wofford’s Liz Miller and Laura Depko hit a pair of treys to trim the lead to 14 at 26-12, but Laura Hall answered with a three of her own with 8:30 to play putting UTC up 29-12. Anderson closed out the half with a pair of shots to give UTC its largest lead of the half putting the Lady Mocs up 40-18 at the break.
The Terriers came out strong to start the second half, putting together an 8-2 run to cut the lead to 42-26 over the first 3:36 of the period, but Hall silenced Wofford with a pair of 3-pointers in an 8-0 run to push the lead to its greatest margin at 50-26 with barely more than five minutes played in the half.
Wofford would never get any closer than 18 the remainder of the game and Chattanooga would push its advantage to 24 twice more in the contest before claiming a 68-49 win, its closest contest with the Terriers since UTC won 74-56 at home on Feb. 11, 2004.
With 2:09 to play in the first half, Brooke Hand drained a 3-pointer to tie for UTC player Katasha Brown for the league career mark of 216. With 7:37 to play in the game, Hand hit her second to claim the record outright and finished with six points.
Anderson tallied her 16th double-double of the season with a game-high 17 points and 10 rebounds. Kristen Spann tied her career-best with 14 points and grabbed seven boards with three assists. Hall was the third Chattanooga player in double digits with 13 points going 2-for-2 from the 3-point line. She had five boards and a game-high four assists.
Miller led Wofford with 11 points. She had four rebounds and three steals. Kelsi Koenig had a team high five rebounds and Jennifer Weurding scored eight points and had two blocked shots. The Terriers were 19-for-52 from the floor and made just three from 3-point land. Wofford had 18 attempts from the charity stripe, but managed to convert just eight.
Chattanooga went 11-for-24 (45.8%) from beyond the arc and 25-of-56 (44.6%) from the floor. The Lady Mocs outrebounded the Terreries 42-28 and scored 15 second chance points off 12 offensive boards.
The loss drops Wofford into a tie with Georgia Southern and will be seeded sixth in next week’s tournament. Chattanooga will tip it off at 10 a.m. Wednesday morning at the North Charleston Coliseum against the winner of the #7 Appalachian State/#10 Elon game played at 7 p.m. Tuesday. The Terriers will play either UNC Greensboro or Davidson on Thursday in the second game.
Lady Eagles Edge Charleston, 52-50
CHARLESTON, S.C. ? Tiffany Brown’s 17 points, including a pair of late free throws, and Chequilla Jessie’s 13-point, 10-rebound performance lifted the Lady Eagles over College of Charleston, 52-50, Saturday afternoon at Charleston’s Kresse Arena.
The Lady Eagles (12-17, 7-11) held a four-point, 50-46 advantage with
1:29 remaining in the game.
But the Cougars (10-19, 5-13) were able to tie up the match with 25 seconds remaining, thanks to a Jill Furstenburg layup and a pair of free throws off the hands of Sarah Moye.
With the next possession, Georgia Southern gave the ball to junior Tiffany Brown (Waxhaw, N.C.) to make one last play. After being fouled while shooting a running jumper, Brown calmly sank both free throws with five seconds on the clock, and the Lady Eagles held a two-point advantage.
Charleston was unable to get a shot off in the waning seconds as the Lady Eagles defense held on for the victory to close out the regular season, and the Cougars dropped their ninth consecutive game before heading into the Southern Conference tournament.
“Everybody knew what was involved in this game and what was on the line,”
said head coach Rusty Cram. “We just knew it was going to be a very tight ball game from start to finish. I felt like it was going to come down to if we could just maintain a decent post game, that the guards were going to be the difference for both teams.”
Brown led all scorers with 17 points, shooting 6-of-11 from the field, including 3-of-5 from behind the three-point arc. Junior Chequilla Jessie (Sanford, Fla.) garnered her second double-double of the season and third career mark, shooting 5-of-8 from the field and hitting all three free-throw attempts.
“They were double- and triple-teaming (Jessie) and she didn’t get a break all night,” said Cram. “But she held her composure. I thought she could have been to the line just about every trip. She knocked her free throws down, and came down with big rebounds. We isolated her quite a bit. My hat’s off to Chequilla. What a great night for her to have.”
Charleston was led by Furstenburg with 15 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field, including a perfect 2-of-2 from behind the arc, and 3-of-3 from the charity stripe. Melissa Chambers followed with 12 points, while Sarah Moye’s 10 rebounds led the Cougars’ squad.
College of Charleston led in field goal shooting, hitting 39.5 percent from the field, compared to GSU’s 33.3 percent performance. C of C also led in three-point shooting at 37.5 percent, but Georgia Southern bettered Charleston from the free-throw line, making 10-of-12 (.833) free throw attempts, compared to Charleston’s 61.9 percent.
Brown’s five steals led an intense GSU defensive effort that saw the Lady Eagles produce 27 points off of Charleston’s 27 turnovers, compared to the Cougars’ 13 points off of GSU’s 21 miscues.
“The points off turnovers, I thought, was the difference in the game because everything else is pretty much even across the board,” added Cram.
“We changed up defense a bit, and I think that stymied them some. We don’t play a lot of zone, but today we went to zone several times. We worked hard on it the last two or three days in practice, and gave them different looks. So I think it got them out of their offensive rhythm and set up a few steals for us when they weren’t expecting it. As the game wore more and more on, we held our composure, we increased our intensity, because our girls got more and more confidence, and I thought that was the difference in the game.”
Charleston led 28-25 going into the locker room with Furstenburg leading all scorers with 10 points. Brown had seven first half points, while junior forward Shawnda Atwood (Pensacola, Fla.) had six points early off that helped set the tone fSaid Cram of Atwood’s performance in the first minutes of the game:
"Shawnda lives by the philosophy: ?You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.’ And she’s that go-to player that seems to always step up in big games. She set the tone for us early in the game when nobody else was really looking to get it done, and I think that relaxed everybody because they found the leader right off the bat. They didn’t have to question who was going to step up and get it done for us.
Shawnda set the tone, and I thought everybody fell into place from there, and that’s what leaders do.”
Georgia Southern and Charleston remained at a deadlock with 35 rebounds, apiece, which was reflective of a game that saw 10 ties and 13 lead changes.
With the win, Georgia Southern clinched at least a No. 6 seed in the Southern Conference tournament, which sets up a Thursday, March 1st match up.
TOSSIE, APPALACHIAN STATE SLIP PAST ELON
ELON, N.C. Whitney Tossie tossed in 25 points and swiped four steals as Appalachian State nipped Elon 63-61 in the Southern Conference women?s basketball regular season finale for both teams Saturday afternoon at Alumni Gym.
Tossie converted eight of her 14 shots from the field and became the Mountaineers? all-time single-season steal leader with 109 thefts as Appalachian State (12-17 overall, 6-12 SoCon) ended a six-game skid. Shannon Spacer had set the previous ASU single-season record with 106 steals during the 1994-95 campaign.
Amber Wall led the Phoenix (10-19, 4-14) with 19 points, 14 rebounds and a career-high six steals, putting forth her fourth double-double performance.
Her 14 boards equaled her career best in that category.
The game featured eight ties and five lead changes. Late in the first period, the Mountaineers reeled off 10 straight points to snap an 18-18 deadlock and seize a 28-18 advantage on a pair of free throws by Tossie with 40 ticks to go in the stanza.
Elon responded by going on a 10-2 run to draw within 30-28 on a put-back by Wall with 16:34 remaining in the second half. Appalachian State then reeled off the contest?s next eight markers to swell its lead to 38-28 on a fast-break lay-up by GiGi Thomas with 13:17 left to play.
Trailing 53-43 following a couple of charity shots by Tossie at the 6:29 mark, the Phoenix put together one final run. Elon claimed its final lead at 58-56 on a three-point basket by Tiffany Davis with 2:31 to go, capping a 15-3 Phoenix run.
Brittany Mixon dropped in a pair of lay-ups to give the Mountaineers a 60-58 edge with 1:39 left. Wall tied the contest at 60-60 on a lay-up of her own with 1:09 remaining. Jaime Bennett gave Appalachian State the advantage for good at 62-60 on a lay-up with 41 seconds to play.
Davis hit the second of her two free throw attempts as the Phoenix inched within 62-61 with 21 ticks to go. After Tossie missed a freebie with 19 seconds left and Nikko King grabbed the carom for Elon, King and Wall narrowly missed shots and Carleena Costner came away with a rebound, a foul and a free throw in the final second to seal the deal for ASU.
Mixon (14 points, nine rebounds) and Thomas (12 points) turned in solid outings for the Mountaineers while Tierra Bumbrey (16 points, four assists), Davis (10 points) and King (10 rebounds, five steals) helped Elon?s efforts.
Appalachian State connected on 49 percent (24 of 49) of its field goal attempts and 70.0 percent (14 of 20) of its free throw tries while Elon finished at 32.3 percent (21 of 65) from the floor and 56.0 percent (14 of 25) from the stripe.
Each team pulled down 39 rebounds. The Phoenix committed 21 turnovers while forcing 28 by the Mountaineers. Elon outscored Appalachian State 40-20 in the paint, 29-22 off turnovers, 17-9 off second chances and 26-17 off the bench.
The Phoenix will enter the 2007 Southern Conference Women?s Basketball Championship as the 10th seed next week, playing in the 7 p.m. contest Tuesday at the North Charleston Coliseum. Elon?s first-round opponent as well as the Mountaineers? seed and foe will be determined after the final SoCon regular season games conclude Saturday night.