Chattanooga 72, Samford 48
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Chattanooga women's basketball team clinched the Southern Conference regular-season title with a 72-48 win at Samford Saturday afternoon in the Pete Hanna Center.
The championship is the 10th straight for Chattanooga. Samford finishes second in the regular-season and will open the SoCon Tournament on Friday, March 6, at 8 a.m. (CT) against either UNC Greensboro or Wofford in Chattanooga, Tenn.
"This was an example of a team who has been on this stage and really upped their game," Samford head coach Mike Morris said. "The most disappointing thing was that they had 10 offensive rebounds in the first half. That is just effort and being in a situation to go get the ball. I think they just wanted to ball more than we did."
Samford was led in scoring by sophomore guard Emily London with 21 points. London also led the team in rebounding with seven. London made 7-of-8 shots from the floor, and she was good on all six free-throw attempts, giving her 52-consecutive made free throws. Senior forward Chika Okoli added nine points for the Bulldogs.
For Chattanooga, Jenaya Wade-Fray led the team in scoring with 12 points. Shanara Hollinquest had 10 points, 11 rebounds and five assists. Erin Ogan scored 11 points and pulled down eight rebounds for the Lady Mocs.
Chattanooga raced out to an early 10-2 lead with 16:40 to go in the first half after a three-pointer by LaCondra Mason. Samford scored the next five points in a row to cut the lead to 10-7 with 14:28 left in the first half after a layup by Okoli.
Chattanooga answered with an 8-0 run to push its lead to 11 at 18-7 with 12:37 to go in the half after a pair of free throws by Mason. After Samford cut the lead to nine at 23-14, the Lady Mocs went on a 10-2 run to push its lead out to 17 at 33-16 with 2:41 left in the opening half after a three-pointer by Tenisha Townsend.
Chattanooga led by as much as 18 points in the first half at 36-18, and the Lady Mocs took a 36-22 lead into halftime.
Samford cut the UTC lead to 11 at 36-25 after a three-pointer by Okoli to open the half. The Lady Mocs then went on a 12-2 run to push the lead out to 21 at 48-27 with 13:13 to go in the game after a layup by Megan Rollins.
Samford fought back to cut the Chattanooga lead to 14 at 48-34 with 9:43 to play after a pair of free throws by London. With UTC leading by 14 at 52-38, the Lady Mocs went on an 11-0 run to give them a 63-38 lead with 6:19 to go in the game.
Samford could get no closer than 21 points the rest of the way as Chattanooga came away with the 72-48 win.
For the game, Samford shot 35.6 percent from the floor, while Chattanooga hit 42.9 percent of its shots. Samford made just 17.6 percent of its three-point attempts, while UTC made 43.3 percent of its shots from beyond the arc. UTC grabbed 12 offensive rebounds compared to Samford's four.
With the loss, Samford drops to 21-6 overall and 16-4 in SoCon play. Chattanooga is currently 21-8 overall and 17-3 in league play.
Western Carolina 77, Wofford 55
CULLOWHEE, N.C. - Western Carolina women’s basketball locked up the No. 3 seed, heading into the Southern Conference Tournament, with a 77-55 victory over Wofford Saturday in the Ramsey Center. One Senior Night, honoring Kendra Eaton, Brooke Johnson and Lauren Powell, the Lady Catamounts improve to 18-11 and 14-6 in the Southern Conference while Wofford falls to 5-23 and 3-17 in the SoCon.
The Lady Catamounts will play the winner of No. 6 Georgia Southern and No. 11 Elon Saturday March 7 in Chattanooga, Tenn. at McKenzie Arena. Game time is set for approximately 30 minutes after the 9 a.m. contest.
Sophomore Emily Clarke led all scorers with 17 points and was one of three Lady Catamounts in double figures. Western Carolina’s pair of seniors, Johnson and Powell, had 14 and 12 points respectively.
For the third straight game, Western Carolina led from tip to buzzer and held its opponent below 60 points and extends its winning streak to seven. The Lady Catamounts pounded the glass, out-rebounding the Terriers 53 to 38, with 30 of the boards coming on the defensive glass.
Western Carolina built a 28-13 lead with 5:53 left in the first half, when Wofford went on a12-2 run and cut the lead to give five, 30-25, with 1:44 left. The Lady Catamounts went on a run of their own, 6-2, in the final minute of the game, capped off by a jumper by Kendra Carroll with four seconds left, to lead 36-27 headed into the half.
The second half looked to be all Western Carolina to start the final 20 minutes, as the Lady Catamounts went up by 16, 43-27, with 16:48 left thanks to a three-pointer by Clarke. But the Terriers continued to try and come back, narrowing the WCU lead to seven, 48-41, with 11:20 left off a three-pointer by Liz Miller.
Western Carolina squelched the Wofford threat going on a 23-8 run, in a six minute span, to enjoy its largest lead of the game, 71-49, with 4:14 left. With two minutes remaining in the game, the three Lady Catamount seniors, Johnson, Eaton and Powell, were subbed out at home for the final time.
Wofford did deny Western Carolina a bit inside with 10 blocks. Miller had four of the blocks for the Terriers.
No Terriers reached double figures in points with Kate Dempsey, Liz Miller and Maddie Helms each contributing eight.
Speaking of blocks, Johnson’s block watch continues. She had three blocks against Wofford and now has 121 in her career, needing six to tie the record (127) and seven to break it.
Fellow senior Eaton joined the 500 rebound club, the 22nd Lady Catamount in school history to have 500 rebounds. She now has 508 in her career.
Davidson 66, Furman 63
GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Ashley Lax scored 15 points to propel Davidson to a 66-63 victory over Furman in Southern Conference women’s basketball action Saturday afternoon on Carolina First Court at Timmons Arena.
Lax, a sophomore guard from Little Rock, Ark., found the mark on 6-of-12 field goals and converted 3-for-4 free throws for Davidson (12-17, 11-9 SoCon), which completed the two-game regular season sweep of Furman (12-17, 6-14 SoCon) in the final regular season game of the season for both teams.
The Wildcats will carry the No. 5 seed into Southern Conference Tournament action in Chattanooga, Tenn., where they will face No. 4 seed College of Charleston next Friday at 9:00 a.m.
Furman is the SoCon’s No. 9 seed and will play No. 8 seed Appalachian State in the tournament’s opening game on Thursday at 3:00 p.m. at UTC’s McKenzie Arena.
The Wildcats, who shot 54.2 percent from the field in the contest, including 11-of-22 from 3-point range (50.0%), got 11 points each from Julian Paquette and Mercedes Robinson, and 10 points from Alex Thompson. Paquette also claimed a game high 10 rebounds for Davidson, which forged a
34-27 advantage on the boards.
Furman was paced by Lee Stephens with 18 points and Melissa Liebschwager with 17 points. The Paladins shot 38.9 percent from the field.
Davidson used hot shooting to grab a 35-29 halftime advantage, but Furman opened the second period with a pair of Stephens 3-pointers as part of an 8-0 burst to secure a 37-35 advantage.
The lead then changed hands six times before a Candace Dowell 3-pointer with 5:53 to go put Furman up, 55-52.
Davidson fought back to take a 57-56 lead on a Thompson 3-pointer with 4:00 remaining.
A Paquette layup with 3:05 to go stretched the margin to 59-56, and a Robinson jump shot off an an assist from Lax with 2:40 left extended the Wildcats’ advantage to 61-56.
Furman made one final run, using a Liebschwager 3-pointer with four seconds to go to pull to within two points at 65-63, but following a missed Davidson free throw with two ticks on the game clock Dowell’s halfcourt shot missed as time expired.
Appalachian State 68, Georgia Southern, 59
BOONE, N.C. Appalachian State University women’s basketball (8-21, 7-13) came out strong in the early minutes of play and finished their 2008-09 regular season contest with the same momentum, as the Apps were able to knock off Georgia Southern (16-13, 11-9) 68-59 Saturday afternoon at the Holmes Center.
After the Eagles took only their second lead of the contest at the 7:03 mark in the second half, going up 49-48 off a Jamie Navarro three point, the Black and Gold rallied with Canesha Edwards hitting a layup and a free throw to put Appalachian on top 51-49. The contest would be tied once more at 51 all, but seven straight points by the Mountaineers and eight made free throws in the final 53 seconds of play, six by Brittney Spencer and two by Catherine Williams helped the Apps capture the nine point win.
Spencer had a career and game-high 20 points, to go along with four assists and two steals, while Williams notched five points and three boards.
ASU was down by just two in the opening seconds of play and never relinquished the lead in the first half as the Mountaineers went up by as many as eight points with a little under nine minutes to play at 20-12, with senior Brittany Mixon scoring six points and Spencer and Sade Means each chipping in four.
Appalachian’s 42 percent shooting coupled with Georgia Southern not scoring a field goal until six minutes into action propelled ASU to its strong play and helped them to take a 28-27 advantage into the break.
The second half was a hotly contested battle with each squad trading buckets over the course of early minutes of play. The Eagles took their first lead since the first half with 6:36 to play.
The Mountaineers however would not back down, as Sam Ramirez, Spencer and Mixon all helped to erase the Eagles one point lead and give Appalachian a six point advantage with 3:21 remaining.
Spencer scored 16 of her 20 points in the second half of action.
ASU came up big at the charity stripe, nailing clutch free throws down the stretch to take home the win.
Appalachian’s win over GSU, snaps a four-game SoCon losing streak and snaps a four-game losing streak to the Eagles, as the Apps notched their first win over their SoCon foe since January 20, 2007.
Three Mountaineers in addition to Spencer finished the contest in double-figures, as Mixon played her final regular season in the Black and Gold in style, scoring 14 points and hauling in five boards, along with Ramirez having 13 points and Edwards posting 10.
Jessica Geiger and Samantha Williams led Georgia Southern with 13 and 11 points respectively.
The Apps look to carry their strong play and momentum into the Southern Conference Tournament Thursday, March 5. ASU will play Furman at 3 p.m. ET.
Georgia Southern will be the sixth seed in the SoCon Tournament and will face No. 11 seed Elon in the third game of the day on Thursday, March 5. Tipoff will be approximately 8 p.m. ET.