No. 1 Chattanooga 68, No. 5 College of Charleston 53
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CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Chattanooga posted a 68-53 win over the College of Charleston to advance to the Southern Conference Women’s Basketball Championship finals for the seventh time in eight years. Chattanooga improved to 28-3 overall and the Cougars close out the season at 14-16.
The Cougars jumped on the Lady Mocs early with a 6-0 run, but Chattanooga’s Brooke Hand quieted the crowd with her first 3-pointer at the 17:53 mark followed by a 3-point play by Jenaya Wade-Fray that tied it up. Charleston held the Lady Mocs to just five more points over the next 4:10 to take a 15-11 lead.
“We were knocking down our shots and playing good defense early on,” College of Charleston’s Nikki Williams said. “Our defense helped get our confidence up.”
That would be the last time Charleston would lead. Chattanooga’s senior forward Alex Anderson bookended a 26-2 run that would firmly put the top-seeded Lady Mocs in front for the remainder of the game.
“We just kept getting the ball inside and if they were doubling, we were passing it out,” Anderson said. “But mainly, we were making shots and playing good defense.”
Anderson had a team-high tying 15 points and just missed a double-double with eight rebounds and had four assists.
“Alex is excellent. When she was a sophomore, she mixed in with the group,” Cougar Head Coach Nancy Wilson said. “I knew after that they could and would use her in the best way possible.”
UTC senior guard Laura Hall, also with a team-best 15 points, had three assists and just one turnover to go with one steal.
“Working the ball into the paint is always important. It’s our game plan,” Hall said. “We have all the confidence in our posts. They make decisions very well.”
The Cougars scored the last four points of the first half and Chattanooga held a 37-21 halftime lead. The second half was a bit more evenly played as the Cougars outscored Chattanooga 32-31 in the latter stanza.
College of Charleston started the second half outscoring the Lady Mocs 6-2 before a Brooke Hand 3-pointer silenced the run to put Chattanooga back up on top 42-27 with 16:32 to play.
Brooke Hand was the third UTC player in double-figures with 12 points. She went 3-for-4 from beyond the arc as the Lady Mocs claimed their 23rd straight win, tied with Conference USA’s UTEP who will play their conference championship game tonight.
This is Chattanooga’s seventh time in the Southern Conference finals in the last eight years. They will play the winner of the #2 Western Carolina ? No. 6 Elon.
No. 2 Western Carolina 72, No. 6 Elon 66
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NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. ? Western Carolina women’s basketball (25-7) advanced to the Southern Conference finals for the second straight year, and fourth in the last five, with a 72-66 victory over Elon (12-20) Sunday in the North Charleston Coliseum.
Elon didn’t make the path to the tournament finals an easy one for Western Carolina. After enjoying a 14-point lead after the first 20 minutes, WCU watched its cushion slowly erode thanks to hot shooting by the Phoenix in the second half as they shot 50 percent in the final 20 minutes of the game.
The Phoenix opened the second half with a three-pointer by Amber Wall, one of 12 three-pointer buckets Elon made in the game. Western Carolina hovered in the double-figure lead zone from the first eight minutes of the second half before Elon’s Tierra Bumbrey cut it to nine points with one of her seven three-pointers in the game.
Bumbrey led all scorers with 25 points, including seven triples, which tied a SoCon Tournament record.
Elon took one of its two leads with six minutes left. The Phoenix pulled ahead by one for a second time, 54-53, with 6:30 left in the game.
Senior Jessika Johnson helped Western Carolina regain the lead, 55-54, hitting a jumper with 6:16 left. The Johnson lay-up sparked an 11-0 run by Western Carolina to give the Lady Cats a 64-54 lead with 3:10 left. The run was highlighted by a Kendra Eaton lay-up in which she was fouled by Elon’s Amber Wall, and hit the free throw for the three-point play.
Western Carolina had to continue to battle Elon in the final three minutes of the game. The Phoenix drained a pair of three-pointers and a lay-up to keep the game in striking distance. The Lady Cats were 6-of-11 from the free throw line to close out the game to keep the Phoenix at bay.
The Lady Catamounts came out on fire in the first half shooting 59.3 percent from the field. Johnson also had a highlight play in the first half, draining the first three-pointer of her career two minutes into the game.
Overall, Western Carolina shot 45.9 percent from the field and was just 3-of-8 from three-point range. The Lady Cats did get 21 second chance points and got 33 of its points from the bench.
The Lady Catamounts were led by senior Monique Dawson who had 15 points and was 2-of-3 from the three-point line. Eaton and freshman Emily Clarke each recorded double figures for the second straight SoCon Tournament game. Eaton had 11 and Clarke was two shy of her career-high with 12.
Western Carolina will face Chattanooga in the Southern Conference Championship for the third time in school history. The Lady Cats are 0-2 against the Lady Mocs in the finals and 0-8 overall when facing Chattanooga in the SoCon Tournament. The game, which will be televised by SportSouth, will tip at 5:00 p.m.