No. 2 Western Carolina 78, No. 10 Wofford 61
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CHARLESTON, S.C. ? No. 2 seeded Western Carolina women’s basketball advanced to the semifinals of the Southern Conference Tournament with a 78-61 victory over No. 10 seed Wofford Friday at the North Charleston Coliseum. The Lady Catamounts will play the winner of the Davidson and Elon game, who play on Saturday, at 2:30 p.m. Sunday. The game Sunday will also be televised by SportSouth.
With an overall record of 24-7, Western Carolina ties the school record for most wins in a season, a mark the club set in 2006-07. Wofford finishes its season at 10-21 overall.
Though Western Carolina led by 14 points at the half, 39-25, the Lady Catamounts had just nine offensive rebounds, and one second chance point. Western Carolina pulled down 15 offensive boards in the second half, which accounted for 12 second chance points. Overall, Western Carolina tallied 50 rebounds in the game, and now are 11-0 when recording 50 or more rebounds in a game.
Wofford rallied from the 14 point first half deficit to trim Western Carolina’s led to five, 48-43, with 13:53 remaining. The Lady Catamounts answered with a 6-0 run to push the lead back into double digits, 56-43.
After cutting the lead back down to nine, 56-47, with 7:49 off a jumper by Terriers’ Kelsi Koenig, senior Jessika Johnson was fouled and drained both of her free throws to push the lead back to 11.
Johnson was a huge presence for Western Carolina in the paint scoring 18 points; two shy of tying her career-high, and was also 8-of-11 from the free throw line. Freshman Emily Clarke came into the game and provided a huge spark for the Lady Cats scoring eight of her 10 points in the second half. Kendra Eaton rounded out the double figure scoring for Western Carolina with 11 points and also led the team in rebounding with eight.
Liz Miller scored 18 points and five assists for the Terriers while Natalie Gramblin tallied 15 points to reach double figures for the second consecutive day.
Western Carolina shot just 38.6 percent from the field and hit just two three pointers but was 22-of-31 from the free throw line. The 50 rebounds were also 14 more then Wofford’s 36.
No. 1 Chattanooga 78, No. 9 UNC Greensboro 33
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CHARLESTON, S.C. ? Sophomore Shanara Hollinquest (Sylacauga, Ala.) led a balanced offensive attack as top-seeded Chattanooga defeated No. 9 UNC Greensboro 78-33 in the quarterfinals of the Southern Conference women’s basketball tournament at the North Charleston Coliseum.
Hollinquest went 5-for-9 on the day to lead the Lady Mocs with 15 points with Brooke Hand (Moulton, Ala.) chipping in 11 as the only other Chattanooga player in double digits. Many of the starters warmed the bench throughout the game as the league Player of the Year, Alex Anderson (Stone Mountain, Ga.), saw just 19 minutes of action scoring nine points and grabbing a game-high nine rebounds, all in the first half.
The two teams matched each other shot-for-shot at the start of the game, but a pair of 3-pointers from junior Erin Ogan (Knoxville, Tenn.) hit back-to-back shots from beyond the arc in the midst of a 14-0 run to push the Chattanooga lead up to 18-7 with 12:05 to play in the first half.
The Lady Mocs held the Spartans scoreless from the floor over the final 6:18 of the first stanza and pushed it lead to 46-17 at the break.
In the second, Chattanooga’s lead grew steadily with a pair of treys from Hand and sophomore Jenaya Wade-Fray (Madison, Ala.). The Spartans then reeled off six straight points, but Chattanooga retook its spot in the driver’s seat with a 10-0 run that featured 3-pointers from Wade-Fray and Ogan who tied her career-high with three in the contest to put UTC up 63-23 with 13:46 to play in the game.
The scoring drew closer the remainder of the game with UTC holding a 15-10 advantage as both teams looked to the bench.
The win featured several records for Chattanooga. The 45-point victory margin was the most-ever in a conference tournament game, beating the previous mark by 40 when Georgia Southern defeated Western Carolina 95-45 in the first round of the 1995 tournament. It was also the fewest points allowed in the league tournament. It was also the fewest allowed by Chattanooga this season, one less than Alabama scored against the Lady Mocs at the Roundhouse.
Chattanooga went 13-for-28 from the 3-point line to tie the conference record held by Appalachian State who had that many against Marshall in the 1997 tournament.
The Lady Mocs outscored UNCG 28-12 in the pain and had 30 points off 16 Spartan turnovers while UNC Greensboro could not score off 11 Chattanooga miscues. UTC’s bench chipped in 11 points led by Ogan’s nine. Laura Hall (Oliver Springs, Tenn.), who had the game’s first 3-pointer, knocked down eight. On the boards the Lady Mocs outrebounded UNCG 46-33 and had 17 assists.
Gini Grimsley led the UNCG attack with nine points. The Spartans close out the season with a 7-24 record.
Chattanooga will face the winner of the College of Charleston-Georgia Southern matchup on Sunday at 12:00 p.m. in the opening game of the semifinals.