Georgia Southern 34, Alabama 67
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - Alabama pulled away with an 18-0 run in the first half and defeated Georgia Southern 67-34 at Foster Auditorium on Monday night. The Lady Eagles dropped to 1-3 overall while the Crimson Tide moved to 4-1 on the season.
Alabama sprinted out to an early lead behind a suffocating pressure defense and 50% shooting in the first half. The Crimson Tide scored 32 points off of 25 Lady Eagle turnovers and Second Team All-SEC guard Ericka Russell scored 15 points to lead all scorers.
Sophomore Aishya Wofford led Georgia Southern in scoring with 10 points and grabbed 9 rebounds to lead the Lady Eagles in her first career start.
Russell hit a 3-pointer less than one minute in to the game to give Alabama an early 7-0 lead. Wofford’s jumper in the paint made it 7-4, but Russell responded for the Crimson Tide with two more treys to make it 13-4 with 15:05 to go in the first half.
Alabama led by as much as 14, before MiMi Dubose hit a 3-point basket to make it 24-13 with 7:30 to go in the period. The Crimson Tide then reeled off 18 straight points to stretch their lead to 42-13. Georgia Southern would go on a 5-2 run heading into halftime, but trailed 44-18 at the break.
In the second half, the Lady Eagles struggled to find their shooting touch. Alabama stretched the lead to 50-18, before Anna Claire Knight hit a 3-pointer with 13:55 to go in the game. Georgia Southern would go on a 7-2 run, but an 11-3 Alabama run put the Crimson Tide up 64-28 with 5:34 remaining. Samantha Williams knocked down her second trey of the game to make it 64-34, but that would be the final bucket on the night for the Lady Eagles.
Davidson 67, Gardner-Webb 46
DAVIDSON, N.C. — Davidson placed five players in double figures in the scoring column and jumped out to a 21-3 lead to cruise to a 67-46 women’s basketball victory over Gardner-Webb Monday night in Belk Arena.
Laura Murray led the Wildcats (2-2) with 13 points, and Katrin Chiemeka collected 12 points, eight rebounds and a career-high four assists.
Sophia Aleksandravicius tallied 10 points, nine rebounds, three blocks and three steals, while Kristen Johnsen and Jasmine Calin each scored 10.
KiKi Smith led Gardner-Webb (0-3) with 12 points, and Jasmine Dale scored 10.
The Wildcats made use of their height advantage to work the ball inside and wound up outscoring the Bulldogs 40-18 in the paint. Davidson shot 48 percent for the game while holding the Bulldogs to 33 percent.
Davidson hit seven of its first nine shots from the field and opened the game with a 21-3 run. Johnsen had seven points during the stretch as Davidson went on to shoot 62 percent in the frame.
Meanwhile, Davidson’s zone defense gave the Bulldogs trouble as Gardner-Webb shot 28.6 percent in the first half and went into the locker room trailing 37-21.
The second half saw more of the same as the margin grew to 26 points at 57-31 on a Sarah Davis layup with 8:46 remaining. Gardner-Webb used full-court pressure to trim the margin to 18 points with 5:26 to play, but would get no closer.
Furman 71, UNC Asheville 59
GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Kaitlin Murphy overcame early foul trouble to score a game high 19 points and help Furman erase a 16-point second deficit en route to a 71-59 victory over UNC Asheville in women’s basketball action Monday evening at Timmons Arena.
Furman (3-1), which trailed 53-37 with a little over 11 minutes remaining, switched to full court pressure to turn the game around, outscoring UNC Asheville 34-6 the rest of the way to secure its third consecutive win.
The Paladins’ pressure led to 13 turnovers and just 3-of-16 shooting by the Bulldogs (2-2) over the final 10:48.
Murphy, who picked up two early fouls and played only seven minutes in the first half, was whistled for her third foul only 11 seconds into the second period but came back a couple of minutes later to help ignite Furman’s furious comeback, tallying 14 of her 19 points over the game’s final 12:39.
Sarah Durdaller, held scoreless in the first half, also played a critical role in Furman’s explosive finish, tallying all of her 11 points along with two rebounds and two of her three assists in the decisive run.
Janice Roberts was equally effective, scoring seven of her 10 points and claiming four rebounds, four steals, and an assist down the stretch.
After Kelli Riles’ layup with 11:12 to go gave the Bulldogs a 53-37 advantage, the Paladins put together a 21-4 run to take a 58-57 lead following a Durdaller layup with 4:23 to go.
The Bulldogs’ struggles against Furman’s full court press continued with turnovers on its next four possessions, which the Paladins converted into nine points, including five by Durdaller and four by Murphy, whose jump shot with 2:57 remaining put the Paladins up, 67-57.
Furman finished the contest with a 21-2 run, with UNC Asheville’s only basket over the final 6:15 coming with three seconds remaining in the contest.
The Bulldogs were led in scoring by Lindsey Thompson, whose 13 points paced four double figure scorers.
UNCA shot 38.0 percent (27-of-71) to Furman’s 36.5 percent (23-of-63), but the Paladins outscored the Bulldogs by 21 points at the free throw line, converting 22-of-30 attempts while the Bulldogs made just one of six tries.
Furman, which trailed 34-31 at halftime, forced UNC Asheville into 14 turnovers over the game’s final 20 minutes.
Lashana Booker scored eight points for Furman and claimed a game high 10 rebounds to go along with five blocks.
The Paladins’ next game is a Nov. 28 home clash against Clemson.
UNCG 67, Radford 71
RADFORD, Va. – Sophomore Breonna Patterson scored a career-high 23 points and redshirt sophomore Natalie Headley added a career-high 13 but UNCG was not able to overcome a big first-half deficit in a 75-67 loss at Radford on Monday.
Da’Naria Erwin Spencer had a game- and season-high 27 points for Radford (4-0), just missing an unconventional double-double with nine assists. Ashley Buckhannon had 14 points.
After trailing by as many as 21 in the opening frame, UNCG (0-3) was a different team after halftime, switching to a four-guard lineup and slowly chipping away at the Highlanders’ lead.
The Spartans eventually cut it to five points at 62-57 on Patterson’s three-point play with 2:27 left, but Erwin Spencer answered with a layup on the other end to put Radford back up by seven.
After a pair of Janae’ Stevenson free throws again pulled UNCG within five, Buckhannon hit a back-breaking 3-pointer from the wing to make it an eight-point spread with less than a minute to play.
Radford would go on to salt it away at the free throw line.
Early in the second frame, freshman April Carson provided an immediate boost off the bench, hitting a 3-pointer just after checking in to make it 47-33. Carson then stole the ensuing in-bounds play and hit another 3 from the same spot, pulling UNCG to within 11 points with 15:38 left.
A jumper and a three-point play from Headley on consecutive possessions pulled the Spartans within seven with just under nine minutes to play before Patterson took over late, scoring seven of UNCG’s nine points in a five-minute stretch.
Patterson finished with 15 points in the second half to more than double her previous career high of 11 points. She also doubled her previous career high in rebounds with six on the night.
Headley also more than doubled her previous career high of six points, playing the entire 40 minutes.
The first half was all Highlanders as Radford shot an even 50 percent from the floor and raced out to a 39-23 halftime lead. Radford jumped out to an 8-0 lead and held UNCG without a point until the 15:32 mark, when a Headley free throw got UNCG on the board.
A layup from Buckhannon, a steal by Erwin Spencer and a jumper by Victoria Hamilton gave the Highlanders their biggest lead of the game at 37-16 with 2:29 to go in the first half.
UNCG concludes its three-game road swing when it takes on North Carolina Central in Durham, N.C., on Saturday at 2 p.m.
Appalachian State 89, East Tennessee State 65
BOONE, N.C. – Anna Freeman and Maryah Sydnor each scored 20 points as Appalachian State women’s basketball trounced East Tennessee State, 89-65, at the Holmes Center on Monday, Nov. 21.
The Mountaineers (2-1) used a second-half surge and timely free throw shooting to take down the Lady Bucs (0-4) for the third-straight season and fifth-straight time at home.
ETSU led for much of the first half, streaking out to a 24-14 lead with 11:41 on the clock, before Appalachian cut the lead to just five points (24-19) on Chakeitha Weldon’s layup at the 10:49 mark.
The bucket, which gave Weldon two of her 10 points in the game, began a 20-4 run for the Mountaineers that put them up by nine points (39-30) with 5:31 remaining in the half.
Appalachian State would extend its lead to as many as 11 points on two occasions in the final five minutes, but a 7-1 run by the Lady Bucs cut the lead to 42-47 at the half.
The Mountaineers shot 44.4 percent (16-for-36) in the first half, but ETSU bested the Apps by shooting 48.1 percent (13-for-27) through the first 20 minutes including 5-for-6 from beyond the arc and 11-for-14 from the charity stripe.
After ETSU tied the game up at 48-48, ASU responded by playing lock-down defense the rest of the way limiting the Lady Bucs to just 33.3 percent (8-for-27) from the floor in the second half and forcing 18 second-half turnovers.
Appalachian would go on to outscore ETSU by a 42-23 margin in the second half and blew the game wide open with an 18-5 run that stretched its lead to 81-60 with just over five minutes to play.
Sydnor added two more buckets in the final three minutes and Kelsey Sharkey converted a layup with 52 seconds left to give ASU a 24-point win.
The Mountaineers shot 44.4 percent (16-for-36) and connected on 22-of-37 free throws while ETSU shot 40.7 percent (22-for-54) and was 14-for-20 from the free-throw line.
Freeman finished the night 6-for-11 from the floor and had seven steals while Sydnor was 9-for-19 with eight rebounds. Courtney Freeman had 15 points while Sharkey and Weldon each finished with 10.
Natalie Pickwell paced the Lady Bucs with a game-high 23 points, including a 4-for-7 effort from long range, but was the only ETSU player to score more than nine. Appalachian State outrebounded ETSU by a 54-34 tally and snagged 31 offensive rebounds.
The Mountaineers return to action on Friday when they face Eastern Kentucky at 4 p.m. in Atlanta, Ga. at the Georgia State Thanksgiving Classic. ASU will face Georgia State at 4 p.m. on Saturday to finish out the road trip.