UNCG 49, North Carolina Central 39

GREENSBORO, N.C. – The UNCG women’s basketball team picked up its second-straight victory Wednesday evening, putting the defensive clamps down on North Carolina Central to walk away with a 49-39 nonconference victory at Fleming Gymnasium. The Eagles remained winless, falling to 0-13.

The Spartans (3-6) allowed their fewest amount of points in a single game since limiting Fordham to 39 in a 50-39 victory at Fleming Gymnasium Dec. 13, 2008. UNCG also set a program single-game mark for blocked shots with 11 on the night as three players had at least three. Junior Janae’ Stevenson moved into fourth place on the Spartans’ career blocks list, now owning 82 stuffs in less than three seasons.

For the sixth time this season, freshman Lucy Mason led the Blue and Gold in scoring with 12 points while fellow rookie Ciara Morris paced the squad with nine rebounds – four on the offensive glass. In her second game of the season, sophomore Jessica Collins dished out a career-best five assists – including a spectacular dish to Mason for a layup early in the second half.

UNCG shot the ball at a 35-percent clip from the field, hitting 19 of 55 shots, while knocking down all 10 of its free throws. It was the first time since an 11-for-11 performance against Campbell Jan. 9, 1992 that the Spartans were perfect from the line. North Carolina Central won the rebounding battle 43-34 as both squads reached double figures in offensive boards.

Two quick layups from Mason and senior Sidnei Harmon gave UNCG a 4-0 lead with scarcely a minute gone in the contest before six-straight points afforded the Eagles their first advantage of the game. A triple by Collins at the 12:44 mark swung the momentum back in the Spartans’ favor before two free throws by Mason capped an 11-2 run which left UNCG with a 15-8 cushion with 7:21 remaining in the half.

It was the Eagles’ turn to respond from there, as North Carolina Central scored nine-straight points to take a 17-15 lead at the 3:35 mark. UNCG put forth the half’s last word, as freshman Sarafina Arthur-Williams and Mason scored in the paint to leave the Blue and Gold with a 19-17 halftime edge.

Chasidy Williams led all scorers in the first 20 minutes with seven points while Mason netted six for the home team. Both squads struggled from the field combining to hit just 14 of 57 attempts from the field.

Stevenson put in a layup just 10 seconds into the second half to give UNCG a 21-17 lead, but the Eagles netted five-straight points to take back the upper hand at the 17:35 mark. It would be the last time North Carolina Central would enjoy the lead as a jumper by Harmon ended a 16-2 run which put the Blue and Gold ahead by 13. The advantage grew as high as 15 when Stevenson converted a layup to make the score 47-32 with 2:53 left in the game. That would be enough for UNCG as the Spartans cruised to the end with the double-digit margin intact.

The Blue and Gold returns to action Saturday, Dec. 22 as UNCG meets No. 23 Florida State in a game that will be played at the Greensboro Coliseum. Tipoff is scheduled for noon. The contest is part of a doubleheader with the men’s team which hosts Wake Forest 30 minutes after the conclusion of the ladies’ game. 

Charleston Southern 69, Western Carolina 61

CHARLESTON, S.C. – Sophomore guard Ali Lane scored a career-high 17 points in Western Carolina women’s basketball’s (3-6) 69-61 loss at Charleston Southern (5-4)Wednesday afternoon in the Buc Dome.

Lane scored 14, of her career-best 17 points, in the second half of the game against the Lady Buccaneers. However, Lane couldn’t keep pace with Charleston Southern’s Erin Bratcher who lit up the court with 25 points, hitting six three pointers.

Western Carolina carried a 31-26 lead into the locker room after building its largest lead of the game, 24-16, with 7:29 left in the first 20 minutes. The 31 points was the second most first-half points scored by the Catamounts this season, scoring 36 in the opening frame against North Carolina Central on November 21.

The Catamounts equaled its largest lead of the game, eight, 34-26, to start the second half. Western Carolina carried the lead for almost 10 minutes of the second half until the Catamounts shots stopped falling and Charleston Southern seemed to have a radar lock on the rim.

Charleston Southern’s Lakeitha Alston’s three pointer, with 9:58 left in the game, cut Western Carolina’s lead to one, 47-46. Alston’s trey was the first of five points she scored, in a two minute span, that gave them the lead for the first time in the game since 11:10 left in the first half. Alston’s pair of free throws both tied and gave the Lady Buccaneers the lead, 48:47, with 8:39 left in the game.

Charleston Southern would lead the remainder of the game.

Western Carolina trailed by as much as seven, 56-49, with 5:09 left. The Catamounts kept clawing back, and trimmed the Charleston Southern lead to one, 58-57, thanks to a jumper by redshirt senior Diamond Hunnicutt. Alston answered with a lay-up and the Catamounts wouldn’t get any closer for the remainder of the contest.

Ten of the 11 Catamounts who saw action in the game scored. Junior forward Shauna Terry ripped down 10 rebounds, the second time this season she has had double figure rebounds in a game.

Western Carolina was out-rebounded by three, 37-34, giving up 25 defensive rebounds to Charleston Southern. The Catamounts had just eight turnovers, dished out eight assists and swiped nine steals.

The stat of the game, besides Bratcher’s 25 points, came from behind the arch as Charleston Southern hit 11 three-pointers. Western Carolina had just five. Charleston Southern made 26 trips to the charity stripe and hit 18, Western Carolina was 10-of-13 from the free throw line.

Western Carolina returns to action at 7 p.m. Friday at Georgia State.

Bethune-Cookman 59, Georgia Southern 48

DELAND, Fla. – Shakeyia Colyer scored 13 points, including 11 in the second half, to lead Bethune-Cookman to a 59-48 women’s basketball victory over Georgia Southern in the Hatter Classic Wednesday afternoon in the Edmunds Center.

Alexis Sams and MiMi DuBose each scored 10 points for the Eagles (1-7), while Meredyth Frye added nine points and four rebounds, and Maggie Davis posted eight points and six rebounds. DuBose was named to the all-tournament team.

Colyer went 7-for-8 from the free-throw line in the second half for Bethune-Cookman (5-5), and Terrenisha Hollis tallied 12 points and four steals. Sharnese Neal finished with nine points and five rebounds.

The Eagles led 39-36 with 9:47 left in the game, but Bethune-Cookman used a 14-0 run over the next 5:07 to take control of the contest.

Neal scored five points during the stretch, and the Lady Wildcats opened a 50-39 cushion.

A pair of free throws by DuBose and Anna Claire Knight helped cut the lead to 51-44 with four minutes to go, but Colyer connected on a jumper, and the Eagles came up empty on their next possession. GSU battled on defense on B-CU’s trip down the floor, but the Lady Wildcats were able to secure two offensive rebounds, forcing the Eagles to foul with 2:02 to play. Colyer made six consecutive free throws to seal the win.

Bethune-Cookman shot 52 percent in the second half and had 10 steals in the contest, forcing 18 Eagle turnovers that led directly to eight B-CU fast-break points.

Bethune-Cookman jumped out to a 13-5 lead to open the contest, but the Eagles fought back with a 12-2 run. Sams hit a triple, Frye scored on a drive and DuBose capped the spurt with a triple to give GSU its first lead of the game at 17-15 with 7:28 left in the half.

The Lady Wildcats responded with consecutive steals that turned into layups and went into the break holding a 25-22 advantage. The Eagles held B-CU to 33 percent shooting from the field but shot just 32 percent and committed 10 turnovers.

The Eagles return to action at Kennesaw State Friday. Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m.

Gardner Webb 62, Wofford 57

SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Wofford’s Morgan Wrightson’s 20 points weren’t enough as Gardner-Webb used 38 second half points to hold on for a 62-57 win over the Terriers Wednesday afternoon in the Benjamin Johnson Arena.

Gardner-Webb (5-5) outshot Wofford (5-4) 52 percent to 29 percent in the second half.  The Runnin’ Bulldogs made 11-of-21 shots, while the Terriers made only ten of their 35 shots from the floor in the half.  For the game, Gardner-Webb shot 41 percent overall, 36 percent from three and 47 percent from the free throw line, compared to Wofford’s 30 percent field goal percentage, 12 percent three-point field goal percentage and 70 percent free throw percentage.

Wrightson’s 20 points led all scorers in the game.  She was 8-of-18 from the floor, 2-of-4 from three and made two of her four free throw attempts.  Motley followed with 16 points on 6-of-14 shooting from the floor and 4-of-7 from the free throw line.  She also had a team-high seven rebounds. Rachel Brittenham handed out seven assists in the game.

The Runnin’ Bulldogs placed four players in double figures as Catrina Green and Jasmine Dale led the way with 12 points each.  Olivia Parker and Jessica Heilig followed with ten points a piece.  Candace Brown led Gardner-Webb on the glass with 12 rebounds, while Mayhana Dunovant had six assists.

The Terriers took an early eight-point lead, 11-3, just over five minutes into play highlighted from seven points from Wrightson including two threes from the left wing.  Wofford’s lead hit double-digits on a Motley layup with 13 minutes on the clock in the first half.

Motley’s basket would be the last basket for the Terriers over the next five minutes as the Runnin’ Bulldogs trimmed the lead down to two points, 15-13, on free throw from Dunovant.  Jordan Frazier answer for Wofford with a jumper and Wrightson followed with a basket as Wofford took the lead back out to six points, 19-13, with 7:28 left to play.

Three minutes later, Gardner-Webb pulled within one point 21-20, on a layup by Heilig.  After the Runnin’ Bulldogs took the lead on a layup with Parker at the three minute mark, Wofford ended the half with the final points on two free throws by Mariah Masalin to end the half and give Wofford a 25-24 lead.

Wofford went scoreless for the first five and a half minutes of action in the second half as Gardner-Webb built a nine point lead, 34-25, on a three from Dale.

The Terriers cut the lead down to three points five minutes later following a 5-1 run capped off by a Masalin layup, but the Runnin’ Bulldogs responded with a 7-0 run to extend their lead to ten points, 44-34, on a Dunovant free throw with 9:35 remaining.

Gardner-Webb kept control of the game until Wofford put together a 5-1 run to cut the lead to two points, 57-55, with 30 seconds left.  Wofford pulled within two points again, 58-56, with 19 second left, but Gardner-Webb seal the game with the final four points to earn the 62-57 win.

The two teams combined for 56 fouls, 28 for each team, and 50 turnovers, 25 for each team, in the game.  Gardner-Webb scored 24 points off turnovers, while Wofford notched only 14 points off of turnovers.

This was Wofford’s final game before the Christmas holiday as the Terriers return to play at Seton Hall on December 30 at 2 p.m.  Wofford picks up Southern Conference play on January 5 at Western Carolina on 2 p.m.

Auburn 53, Chattanooga 40

AUBURN, Ala. --- The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team fell 53-40 at Auburn Wednesday night, snapping a four-game win streak. The Lady Mocs are now 8-2 on the year and will return to action after the New Year. Auburn improves o 9-2 overall.

Chattanooga made just 15-of-55 field goals, its lowest for both makes and attempts this season, and was 4-of-31 (12.9%) from beyond the 3-point line. Junior Ashlen Dewart and senior Kayla Christopher combined for 24 of Chattanooga’s 40 points. Dewart was 5-of-9 from the field and 3-of-3 from the free throw line for a team-high 13 points and had five rebounds in the effort. Christopher was 3-of-9 from beyond the arc and made both of her free throw attempts for 11 points. She moves to 20th place on the Lady Mocs all-time scoring charts with 1,086 career points.

Chattanooga’s only lead of the game came early behind free throws from Christopher and a lay-in by junior Taylor Hall just less than two minutes into the contest. Auburn’s Tyrese Tanner hit a jumper at the 17:55 mark and led Auburn on a 17-0 run over the next 6:39 for a 19-4 lead with less than half of the first period gone.

The Lady Mocs responded with a 9-2 run to get back to within eight points, 21-13, at the 4:53 mark of the half but the Tigers fought back with seven straight points to retake command of the game. Dewart hit a layup in the final minute and Auburn led UTC 28-15 at the break.

In the second half, the Lady Mocs cut Auburn’s lead to seven points twice but couldn’t get any closer. With UTC trailing 32-21 early in the latter period, sophomore Ka’Vonne Towns grabbed a defensive rebound off a missed Auburn free throw that led to a jumper from junior Meghan Downes to cut the lead to 32-23 with 15:44 to play. Towns would then get a layup of her own at the 14:37 mark of the half to make it 32-25.

Auburn got the next five points to stretch the lead back out to 37-25 with 12:02 to play. The Lady Mocs answered with a 5-0 run by Dewart to cut it back to seven, 37-30, at the 11:04 mark, but the Tigers outscored UTC 14-5 over the next 7:34 to gain their largest lead of the game, 51-35 with 2:48 to play.

Chattanooga was outscored in the paint 24-16 and had eight second chance points off 13 offensive boards to the Tigers’ 13 from 15 offensive rebounds.  Auburn outrebounded Chattanooga 42-32. Hall had a team-high eight rebounds for the Lady Mocs and senior Kylie Lambert (Etowah, Tenn.) had seven. Lambert and Towns each had a team-best three assists while Christopher led UTC with three steals.

The Lady Mocs will take time off for the holiday before returning to prepare for their final non-conference contest. UTC will travel to Birmingham, Ala., to take on UAB on Jan. 2 in a midday game.