Furman 71, UNC Asheville 30
GREENVILLE, S.C. ? The Furman women’s basketball team moved to 2-0 on the season with a 71-30 win over UNC Asheville on Tuesday night.
The Paladins, who opened the season with a win over Clemson last week, used solid defense and strong shooting to defeat the Bulldogs.
Furman had a strong beginning in the first half, jumping out to an 8-0 lead at the 17-minute mark and doubling its points with a 16-2 lead at the 14-minute mark. The Paladins held the Bulldogs to a mere 17 points while knocking down 45 of their own before heading into the break.
Furman’s strong first half was helped by Kali Holtfreter’s 14 points and five rebounds. As a team, the Paladins shot .654 percent from the field in the first half, including .600 from beyond the arc.
In the second half, the Paladins’ defense continued to perform, limiting the Bulldogs to 13 points and taking a 71-30 victory.
The Bulldogs were led by sophomore Chioma Okoli’s nine points, while Kendall Shepard added eight points. Ipek Derici topped the team with seven rebounds.
Furman turned in an all-around performance, shooting .474 as a team, compared the Bulldogs’ .189 mark. The Paladins recorded 14 steals and nine blocks and forced 24 turnovers from UNC Asheville.
Junior Lee Stephens led the Paladins with 17 total points and added five assists, while Kali Holtfreter and Melissa Liebschwager each contributed 16 points. Holtfreter also added seven rebounds, and senior Katie Johnson grabbed eight rebounds to lead the team.
With the win, Furman improves to 2-0 on the season, while UNC Asheville falls to 0-3. The Paladins will host SC State on Friday, November 21. Game time is set for 7:00 p.m.
Samford 61, Alabama 55 (OT)
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - Samford's Monica Maxwell and Karmen Smith scored 17 points each to lead the Bulldog women's basketball team to a 61-55 overtime win at Alabama Tuesday night at Coleman Coliseum.
Samford shot 32.7 percent from the floor on the night, while holding Alabama to just 34.9 percent. Samford made 24.0 percent of its three-point attempts, while Alabama shot 7.1 percent from three-point range.
"I told our team in the locker room that good teams have to find a way to win when they are not playing well," Samford head coach Mike Morris said. "We didn't play well for most of the game, but that is a credit to the players and their heart. They have a big heart and they refused to lose. They found a way to win a basketball game where it just didn't look like it was our night."
With the win, Samford improves to 2-0 on the season, while Alabama falls to 1-1. The win was Samford's second-straight victory over Alabama, but it was the Bulldogs' first ever win at a Southeastern Conference school.
Along with their 17 points each, Smith had seven rebounds and Maxwell pulled down six boards. Savannah Hill added 11 points for the Bulldogs.
Alabama's Tierney Jenkins led the Crimson Tide with 19 points. Katie Hancock led all rebounders with 11.
Samford's Hill hit a layup with seven seconds to go in regulation to send the game into overtime at 49-49. After Alabama hit the first basket of the overtime, Samford came back to score the next five points to take a 54-51 lead with 4:06 to go after a pair of free throws by Smith.
After Alabama came back to take the lead at 55-54, Samford scored the final seven points of the game to earn the win. Chika Okoli hit a layup with 1:22 to go to give Samford the lead for good at 56-55. Maxwell then hit a layup with 41 seconds left to make the score 58-55. One free throw by Hill with 18 seconds left and two by Smith with six seconds to go sealed the win for the Bulldogs.
Alabama scored the first eight points of the game, but Samford bounced back with a 5-0 run to cut the lead to three with 16:37 to play in the first half after a three-point play by Megan Wilderotter. With Alabama leading, 15-5, Samford went on a 10-3 run to cut the Alabama lead to three at 18-15 after a three-pointer by Emily London with 8:19 to go in the first half.
With Alabama leading, 20-15, Samford went on a 7-0 run to take the lead at 22-20 after a pair of free throws by Maxwell with 3:13 to go in the first half. Alabama scored the last five points of the first half to go into halftime with a 25-22 lead.
Alabama pushed its lead to five points early in the second half at 33-28. With the Crimson Tide leading, 35-30, Samford went on a 10-2 run to take a 40-37 lead with 6:56 to go after a jumper by Smith.
Alabama fought back to take a three-point lead at 45-42 with 4:05 to play after a layup by Jenkins. With Alabama leading, 49-46, a free throw by Okoli cut the lead to 49-47 to set the stage for Hill's layup to force overtime.
Samford will return to action on Friday, Nov. 21, when the Bulldogs play their home opener against New Orleans. Tip-off for the game is scheduled for 7 p.m. CT at the Pete Hanna Center. The game can be heard locally on WVSU-FM 91.1, or worldwide on the internet at www.samford.edu/wvsu.
North Carolina State 65, Elon 41
ELON, N.C. ? Elon held the nation’s leading scorer from last season Shayla Fields to just three points in a 65-41 loss to NC State at Reynolds Arena in Raleigh, N.C. Despite the loss, junior Amber Wall recorded her first double-double of the season with a team-leading 11 points and 10 rebounds.
Elon jumped out to a 6-2 lead thanks to the sharp-shooting of Wall, Tiara Gause and Medley. A layup by Erica Keto, her first points of her career, extended the Phoenix lead to 8-4. Turnovers became the story of the first half as the Wolfpack scored 15 points off of Elon’s 14 turnovers. NC State answered with a 20-0 run that gave it a 14-point lead at the 27-10 mark with 3:49 left in the half.
The ball handling woes that plagued Elon in the first half were almost non-existent in the second half as Elon turned the ball over just six times. The Wolfpack added eight turnovers in the second half to bring its total to 14 for the game.
A pair of free throws by Gause was followed by a layup from Aiesha Harper brought Elon back to within 16 at 29-13. Wall turned a layup into a three-point play after getting fouled and connecting on her free throw to make it a 33-16 game. The Phoenix would not score again in the opening half as it entered the locker room trailing 35-16.
NC State’s Tia Bell scored the opening points of the second half to open up a 21-point lead. A Wall layup sparked a 7-0 run by the Phoenix that was capped off when Medley sank the games only three-pointer of the night to cut the Wolfpack lead to 12 at 41-29.
Brittany Stachan’s shot at 4:02 made it an 18-point ballgame. Tiffany Davis answered with a layup for her only points of the night. NC State took its largest lead of the night with less than a minute to play at 63-39. A jumper by Medley was the final Phoenix points of the night.
Elon is back in action Friday, Nov. 21 when it travels to Greensboro, N.C. to face the N.C. A&T Aggies in a 7 p.m. game. The game marks the second game of a four-game road trip.
East Carolina 80, Appalachian State 75
GREENVILLE, N.C. - Appalachian State University women's basketball opened the season with a second-straight close game that ended in a hard-fought loss. The Mountaineers were unable to regain a lead late in the game on Tuesday night in an 80-75 setback at East Carolina.
Sam Ramirez led the team with 17 points and the Mountaineers (0-2) owned the boards with a 53-35 advantage on the glass in the game, led by Canesha Edwards with 16.
After missing two of their first three, the Mountaineers connected on each of their next four shots to take a 12-11 lead. Ramirez had seven of the team's first 15 points, as the score went back and forth for the first 10 minutes of the game.
Ramirez shot 8-for-14 from the floor and added eight rebounds and five assists for the night.
ECU (2-0) started feeding the ball into the post to take a 26-21 lead before the Apps picked the pace of the game. The Apps immediately took off on a 9-2 run to regain the lead, 28-26. The score stayed close as the teams traded the lead back and forth for the rest of the half as ECU took a 36-34 advantage into the locker room.
Appalachian won the battle on the boards in the first 20 minutes with 16 offensive and 33 total rebounds compared to just 16 total for the Pirates.
To open the second half, Frances Hernandez nailed a three-pointer to give ASU the lead and then converted a rare four-point play to extend the lead to 45-40 three minutes into the half.
ECU battled back to take a 67-64 lead with five minutes to play. Seven points from Brittney Spencer and a Ramirez bucket pulled ASU within one at 69-68 with just over four minutes to play, however, and another trey from Hernandez tied the score at 71 with 2:52 remaining.
Spencer turned in another career performance while running the point, with 16 points and three assists. Hernandez chipped in 15 points and a game-high seven assists on the night. She has made four three-pointers in each of the two games this season.
The Apps never completed the comeback in the final moments of the game and a LaCoya Terry jumper with 34 seconds remaining put the Pirates up by five points, which proved to be the final margin in the 80-75 loss. Terry led ECU with 34 points on 13-of-20 shooting.
Edwards made her first career start in the game and had another solid performance with 15 points, 16 rebounds and two of ASU's six steals. Her 16 boards were the most since Brittany Mixon pulled down 16 last January. Her double-double was the second in as many games this season.
The Apps shot 38 percent from the floor on 13-of-30 shooting and converted 10-of-12 from the free throw line for an 83 percent clip. ECU led Appalachian 20-2 in fast-break points and 24-8 in points off the bench. Haley Hackett scored five and Sad? Means added three points off the bench for the Mountaineers.
The Mountaineers close out the two-game road trip at Wake Forest on Friday at 7 p.m.