Coastal Carolina 67, Wofford 64
SPARTANBURG, S.C.-The Wofford women’s basketball team opened the 2008-09 with a hard fought loss to the Chanticleers of Coastal Carolina 67-64. The Terriers led by two, 32-30, at the half but were unable to sustain the lead.
Neither team could get things going early offensively in the opening half as the score was tied at nine with 10:42 left to play. A lay-up by Kathlyn Varno gave the Terriers their biggest lead of the half as they went up 18-15 with 5:45 on the clock.
Wofford (0-1, 0-0 SoCon) would continue to lead until late in the half when two free throws, made by Courtney Grambley, gave Coastal Carolina (3-0, 0-0 Big South) a 28-26 lead. The Terriers responded with a bucket by Summer Nichols, followed by a Mahagony Williams free throw to take a 29-28 lead with 37 seconds left in the half. Two free throws by Coastal Carolina gave them a one point lead that was quickly erased by an Ashley Kroker triple with 12 seconds remaining. With the Kroker bucket, the Terriers took a 32-30 lead into the break.
The Terriers shot 44.4 percent from the field in the opening half while Coastal Carolina only shot 26.7 percent. A balanced scoring attack helped Wofford take the lead as eight players scored in the opening stanza.
A Mahagony Williams jumper gave the Terriers a 34-30 lead out of the break and eventually a 38-33 lead following a Nichols jumper. Wofford would then go on a scoring drought lasting nearly five minutes in which the Chanticleers stormed back and took a 46-38 advantage with 12:20 left in the game. Coastal would continue to build on the lead and extend it to 53-42 with under ten minutes left on the clock.
However, the Terriers would not go away as they scrapped their way back as Liz Miller hit a three to cut the lead to six at 55-49. Williams got Wofford within three as she made a strong basket in the paint as she was fouled giving her a free throw opportunity in which she capitalized on. The Chanticleers would continue to make free throws down the stretch which gave them a five point lead with 18 seconds left in the contest. A long three pointer from Natalie Gramblin cut the deficit to two with five seconds left, but a free throw by Coastal Carolina only left Wofford with a half-court shot that came up short.
The Terriers were led by Williams who tallied a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Nichols added 10 points to go along with eight rebounds while Natalie Gramblin also reached double-digits in scoring with 10 points. Miller nearly had another double-double for the Terriers as she totaled nine points and eight boards to go along with five assists. For the game, the Terriers shot 39 percent from the field, 30.8 percent from the three-point line, and 50 percent from the foul line. However, Wofford dominated Coastal Carolina on the glass, 48-30.
Coastal Carolina was led by Sydnei Moss who totaled 22 points while Amanda Stull added 12. The Chanticleers shot 32.8 percent from the floor, 25 percent from the three-point line, and went 25-29 for 86.2 percent from the foul line.
Wofford will return to action on Tuesday as they travel to Chapel Hill, N.C. to take on the fourth-ranked Tar heels of North Carolina.
No. 20 Auburn 71, Georgia Southern 45
STATESBORO, Ga. ? The Georgia Southern women’s basketball team cut the lead down to two with less than three minutes remaining in the first half, but 20th-ranked Auburn eventually pulled away in the second half and won 71-45 Wednesday night (Nov. 19) at Hanner Fieldhouse.
“We felt like we did a pretty good job with our game plan, but they made us do different things that we weren’t ready to do,” said Lady Eagles head coach Rusty Cram. “They made us shoot the ball from way downtown, and we don’t want to shoot that many 3-pointers this year.”
Auburn (3-0) jumped out to a 6-0 lead to start the game, but Georgia Southern (2-1) cut the lead to one with 16:07 remaining. Jamie Navarro (Naples, Fla.) hit a three from the left wing and Carolyn Whitney (Duluth, Ga.) scored on a fast break layup to make the score 6-5.
Auburn led by as many as seven in the early going, but Brittney Nelson (Rochester, Mich.) cut the lead to three points with 7:59 remaining on a 3-pointer from the right wing.
“I thought we played with them for awhile, and our emotion helped us in the first half,” stated Cram.
Navarro nailed a shot from beyond the arc with 5:25 remaining to cut the Auburn lead back down to two points. The Lady Eagles kept the score close late into the first half. Ashley Melson (Newnan, Ga.) scored on a wide open layup in the paint to pull back within two points with less than three minutes remaining. However, the Tigers went on an 8-1 run to close out the half and that would be the closest Georgia Southern would get.
The Tigers led at halftime 36-27, but Georgia Southern held them to 40 percent shooting from the field in the first half.
Auburn opened up a 43-29 lead prior to the first media timeout. Alli Smalley scored five of the seven points during that period.
The Tigers shot 58 percent from the field in the second half (47.5 percent overall) while holding the Lady Eagles to 27 percent in the second half ? 28 percent for the game. Georgia Southern finished just 5-of-24 from beyond the arc.
One bright spot defensively for the Lady Eagles was holding Auburn All-American DeWanna Bonner to 11 points. The senior guard came into the game averaging 27 on the season.
“We felt like we did a pretty good job of guarding her,” said Cram.
Jessica Geiger (Stone Mountain, Ga.) pulled down 10 rebounds to lead the Lady Eagles, however, the much taller Auburn squad held a 50-39 edge.
Melson led the Lady Eagles with 12 points. Navarro scored eight points, cleared away five rebounds and did not commit a turnover in 28 minutes of action.
“We did a good job of rebounding against a team that was much larger than us,” said Cram.
Smalley finished with a game-high 18 points for the Tigers. Chantel Hilliard scored 10 points off the bench.
Georgia Southern returns to action Saturday against UNC Asheville at 3:00 p.m.