Appalachian State 68, Norfolk State 61

GREENVILLE, N.C. - Appalachian State University women’s basketball battled to the wire against Norfollk State to slide past the Lady Spartans with a victory.

The Mountaineers captured a gripping 68-61 win at East Carolina’s Minges Coliseum Sunday afternoon in the final day of the ECU Pirate Invitational.

Appalachian's underclassmen stepped up in the Mountaineers’ first meeting against the Spartans. Freshman Farrahn Wood had an explosive game, posting a new career high 12 points and four field goals on the night, in addition to setting career records with four three pointers and one block. Sophomore Katie Mallow lead the Apps in scoring with 15 points against the Spartans.

Appalachian (4-1) spent the majority of the first half trailing the Spartans, who opened the contest with a 6-0 run over the first 3:54. Courtney Freeman’s layup at 16:46 into the half put the Apps on the board (6-2).

A free throw from Anna Freeman would tie the game at eight before Norfolk’s Kashay Barnes connected on a three to put the Spartans ahead by one possession (11-8), and unleash on a 13 point run edging the Spartans back into a 21-8 lead.

A clean three pointer from sophomore Katie Mallow provided the spark for Appalachian to begin climbing back. A layup from Courtney Freeman pulled App within two heading into halftime (29-27).

Maryah Sydnor, stepped up to open the second half with a layup and tie the game at 29 a piece.Raven Gary's steal at just 18:06 into the second period would open the door for Katie Mallow to shoot a jumper and edge Appalachian ahead (31-29).

The Mountaineers would control the lead for the remainder of the contest, leading by as much as 11, before a final jumper from NSU’s Rachel Gordon would wrap up the Apps’ 68-61 victory.

Courtney Freeman and Katie Mallow finished as the team’s leading scorers with 15 points each. C. Freeman added nine boards in the game, and dished our four assists. Anna Freeman posted eight rebounds of her own, and shot a perfect 6-6 from the charity stripe.

Appalchian now travels to Xavier on Nov. 30 before returning home to face conference foe Georgia Southern on Dec. 3.

Rutgers 55, Davidson 49

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Junior Laura Murray went off for a season-high 24 points and nearly shot the Wildcats past Rutgers, but Davidson was unable to hold onto a late second half lead in falling 55-49 in a tightly-contested game at the Rutgers Athletic Center Sunday afternoon in non-conference women’s basketball action.

Murray drilled home six three-pointers, one off her career-high, and finished 8-of-14 from the field for 24 points to go with four assists. Sophia Aleksandravicius also reacheddouble digits with 12 points, while filling the stat sheet with nine boards, seven blocks, two assists and a steal. Her seven blocks were two off her single-game school record set last year.

Davidson, which saw its nine-point halftime lead disappear after an 11-0 run by Rutgers to open the second half, turned a 38-37 deficit into a 47-41 lead with just under eight minutes to go behind a 10-3 run. Aleksandravicius and Murray combined for all 10 points. The Wildcats though were held to just two more points the remainder of the way as they were outscored 14-2.

The ‘Cats (1-3) had a chance to tie things up at 52 when Murray got a wide-open look from three-point range off an inbounds play, but missed, and then Aleksandravicius missed on the putback which would have cut the Rutger lead to one with 1:14 left. Monique Oliver and Betnijah Laney sealed the win for Rutgers with three free throws.

Oliver and Laney scored 15 points apiece to pace the Scarlet Knights (3-1), with Oliver adding nine boards. Laney scored 10 straight points at one time in the second half helping Rutgers comeback. Erica Wheeler chipped in 12 points.

Murray and the Wildcats came out firing on all cylinders, hitting six of their first eight shots that included a 4-for-4 showing from downtown. They finished the first half shooting 47.6 percent after being over 50 percent the majority of the half.

Murray banked in her first trey of the half to give Davidson a 12-5 lead. Two moretriples later from the shooting guard pushed the advantage out to 18-9 with12:16 on the clock.

Dakota Dukes would double up the Scarlet Knights (24-12) with a bucket inside off a nicepass from Jasmine Calin and then added another layup to make 27-12 with just around four and a half minutes left in the first period.

Davidson’s defense was working it on the other end, holding Rutgers scoreless over a five-minute stretch and just 17.2 percent shooting (5-29) for the half. TheScarlet Knights would come back to shot an even 50 percent in the second half.

Oliver got Rutgers to within nine with five of her nine first-half points in the last few minutes as Davidson went into the break up 29-20.

Davidson wraps up its six-game road trip to start the year, and finish out November, by playing at Mercer on the 28th for a 7 p.m. contest in Macon, Ga. The Wildcats hosted the Bears last year and earned a 75-60 victory, its first in the series.

Cincinnati 66, College of Charleston 57

CINCINNATI, Ohio –  Down by 13 at halftime, the College of Charleston women’s basketball team fought back and narrowed the gap to one point, but couldn’t take the lead as they fell 66-57 against Cincinnati Sunday at Fifth Third Arena.

Senior Latisha Harris led the Cougars (2-3) with 13 points and junior Alyssa Frye added 11 points. Junior Jillian Brown played a complete game with six points, seven assists and four steals.

Brown’s seventh assist was the 242nd of her career and moves her into a tie for 10th on the Cougars all-time list.  

Cincinnati (3-1) jumped out to an 18-7 lead in the first eight minutes of the contest. Frye led the Cougars with seven points in the opening half, but the Cougars trailed 36-23 at the break.

Senior Cathryn Hardy opened the second half by grabbing one of her 11 rebounds and put it back for a layup and was fouled to cut the Bearcat lead to 10 on the first possession of the half.

Freshman Shannon Hines provided a spark for the Cougars as she hit two three-pointers as part of a 12-4 run to cut the Cincinnati lead to just one at 48-47 with 11:05 to go.

The Cougars and Bearcats traded baskets over the next several minutes and with 4:38 to go CofC was still within three at 56-53. Cincinnati went on a 6-2 run over the next two and half minutes to extend their lead to seven at 62-55 with 2:02 to play. Cincinnati would get a layup and foul to go up 11.

Also making an impact on the game was sophomore Courtney McKenzie, who scored her first points of her collegiate career in the first half and finished with six points and five rebounds for the game.

The game was the Cougars seventh meeting with a Big East school and their record against the conference is 1-6. 

Up next the Cougars return home to battle Winthrop Wednesday at 7:00 p.m.