No. 21 Florida State 70, College of Charleston 57
Tallahassee, Fla. - Cierra Bravard scored 25 points, while Jacinta Monroe added 15 rebounds to lead the No. 21 Florida State Seminoles to the 70-57 victory over the College of Charleston women's basketball team in front of 1,953 fans at Tucker Civic Center in Tallahassee, Fla.
The Cougars drop their first of the season to go to 1-1, while the Seminoles remain undefeated with a 3-0 mark.
College of Charleston shooting started cold in the first half with Florida State building a 15-4 lead with 9:01 before intermission. Charleston, led by five points from Nikki Williams (North, S.C.), used a 13-4 run over the next five minutes to cut the margin to four at 21-17 with just under five remaining in the half. The Seminoles fired back and ended the half with a 12-4 run, eclipsed by a last-second three-pointer by Tanae Davis-Cain, to go into the locker room leading 32-21.
Charleston shot just 21.9 percent from the field in the half, compared to 45.2 for the Seminoles.
The Cougars made it interesting, opening the second half with a 17-5 run over the first five and a half minutes to take their first lead of the game, a 38-37 margin over the Seminoles with 14:25 to go. Brooke Kotcella (Anderson, S.C.), Tonia Gerty (Port Orange, Fla.) and Ericka Williams (Blackville, S.C.) all had three-pointers in the stretch to lead the Cougars.
Although the Seminoles re-took the lead at 14:01 off a lay-up by Cayla Moore, the Cougars remained close over the next seven minutes and even took a brief lead again at 7:18, 49-48. That would be the last time Charleston led as Florida State used clutch free throws, connecting on 12-of-13 down the stretch, to go on a 22-8 run and escape with the 70-57 win.
The Cougars finished the game shooting 31.7 percent, including 41.9 in the second half. The Seminoles shot 40.0 percent for the game. Florida State held the slight edge in rebounds, 42-40, and turnovers, 15-19. FSU went 21-for-28 from the charity stripe, compared to 10-of-11 for CofC. The perimeter game was dominated by Charleston as the team connected on seven-of-19, to just a one-for-seven effort for Florida State.
Kotcella, Sarah Moye and Gerty all led the Cougars in scoring with eight each. Ericka Williams followed with six on the night. Williams was just one short of her career-high with 11 rebounds in the game to lead the team.
Bravard led all scorers with 25 for Florida State. Monroe had a double-double with her 15 points and 15 rebounds.
The Cougars travel to Kennesaw, Ga. Nov. 22 to take on Kennesaw State in a 6:00 p.m. showdown.
UNC Wilmington 53, UNC Greensboro 50
WILMINGTON, NC ? UNC Wilmington’s Sheronda McLean’s free throw with 42.7 seconds left broke a 50-all tie and Brittany Blackwell added a pair with 7.7 seconds left as the Seahawks earned a come-from-behind win over UNC Greensboro on Thursday, 53-50.
Agne Girstautaite led the Spartans with a career-high 11 points, eight of which came in the first half. Gini Grimsley scored nine to go with eight rebounds while Lakiah Hyson had nine points and six boards.
Blackwell scored a game-high 24 points to go with 12 boards, while Greta Luksyte was the only other Seahawk player in double figures with 11 points.
UNCG (0-3) made 23 field goals to UNCW’s 14, but UNCW (3-0) won this one at the free throw line, where the Seahawks attempted 31 to the Spartans’ six. UNCW made 22 of its attempts while UNCG made just two, more than accounting for the final margin of victory.
The Spartans held the lead or the score was tied for most of the first and much of the second half, until Blackwell’s layup with 3:06 to go put the Seahawks up 46-45 and gave them their first lead since holding a 1-0 advantage in the opening minutes. UNCG’s Ashley Mullins countered with a nifty layup on an inbounds play, but Blackwell had an answer of her own to restore UNCW’s one-point advantage.
Kendra Smith sank a jumper to put UNCG back on top with 1:45 to go, but that would prove to be the Spartans’ final lead of the day.
The Seahawks again found Blackwell underneath for another jumper to make it 50-49, but Hyson hit the back end of a two-shot foul to tie the contest for the seventh time on the day.
After McLean hit the back end of her two-shot foul to put UNCW ahead for good, UNCG coach Lynne Agee called a timeout. Coming out of the timeout, Amanda Leigh got a look at a 3-pointer that would have given UNCG the lead, but the shot was off and the Spartans were forced to foul.
Blackwell’s free throws made it a three-point game when the Spartans got the ball back with just a shade under eight seconds left, but UNCG turned it over and the Seahawks played keep-away until the clock ran out.
UNCG led at the half for the first time this season, and Girstautaite matched her career high of eight points in the first half alone.
Sophomore TaShama Banner, who entered this season with just four career steals, set a new career high for the second game in a row. After grabbing four against Wake Forest on Monday, Banner collected a game-high six against the Seahawks. UNCG had 14 steals for the game.
The game was played in front of a raucous crowd of hundreds of elementary school children for UNCW’s “Seahawks Tomorrow” day, part of the NCAA’s “Pack the House” initiative.
UNCG will try again for its first win of the season when it hosts High Point at 7 p.m. Monday.