Western Carolina 58, Wofford 54
SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Sophomore forward Alex Abrahm’s pair of free throws, with six seconds remaining, iced the game for Western Carolina women’s basketball (10-15, 5-10 Southern Conference) as the Catamounts defeated Wofford (11-14, 4-12 SoCon) 58-54 Saturday at Benjamin Johnson Arena.
The weather was blistery and cold outside, and Abraham was just as icy, as she helped seal the game for the Catamounts. After Ali Lane missed the front end of a one-and-one opportunity, with 16 seconds left, Wofford had a chance to tie or take the lead trailing 56-54.
After a missed field goal by the Terriers Logan Morris, Wofford’s Morgan Wrightson, who led all scorers with 18 points, ripped down the rebound to breathe new life into Wofford. However, Abraham used nimble fingers and stealth like cunning to sneak the ball away from Wrightson and get the steal. With the ball going the way of Western Carolina, and the clock ticking down, Wofford had no choice but to foul Abraham, setting up the free throw opportunity and winning scene.
Senior guard Kaila’Shea Menendez led Western Carolina with 15 points, scoring 13 of her points in the second half. She scored the first bucket of the game for the Catamounts, to start the game, and broke a WCU scoring drought to start the second half, draining a three-pointer. Western Carolina struggled to find a scoring touch to start the second half and it was Menendez’s three pointer that halted and almost four minute span without scoring, to start the final 20 minutes of the game.
Leading 30-25, at the half, Western Carolina built a six-point lead with Mendendez’s three-pointer and even held as much as a seven point lead, twice, in the second half. Wofford was pesky and stayed close to the Catamounts, finally trimming the Catamount lead to one, 45-44, with 7:56 remaining.
Thrice more Wofford trimmed the Catamount lead to one, with the final time coming with 3:27 remaining when Rachel Brittenham hit two free throws. Leading by a tenuous one point, 52-51 Menendez answere for WCU with a jumper to push Western Carolina’s lead back to 54-51 with 2:12 left.
Neither team could find the basket for two minutes, then in the last 30 seconds, Wofford looked to foul to stop the clock. Ali Lane was fouled, hitting both free throws, giving Western Carolina a 56-51 lead.
Wofford made it interesting when Erin Frost hit a monster three-pointer to slice the Catamount lead to two, 56-54, with 19 seconds remaining. Western Carolina prevailed on the slight of hand by Abraham and her pair of free throws to close out the game.
Davidson 78, Elon 51
ELON, N.C. — The scoring duo of Laura Murray and Sophia Aleksandravicius to score half of the Wildcats’ season-high 50 second-half points and Davidson won its season-best sixth game in a row in a 78-51 Southern Conference road win at Elon in women’s basketball action at Alumni Gym.
Davidson (17-7, 13-2 SoCon) shot 57 percent in the second half and used a 21-0 run over a seven-minute span to sweep the season-series vs. Elon (12-12, 8-7 SoCon).
Murray paced all scorers with 19 points, 12 of them in the second period, and pocketed three of the ‘Cats’ 13 steals for the game. Aleksandracivius followed with 13 points, all coming in the second half, and pulled down eight boards.
Barbara Sitton reached the double-digit mark in points for the fourth time in the last five games, netting 13 points to go along with game highs of six assists and five steals.
Shneeka Center and Amanda Ottaway sparked a 27-point outing by the bench with strong games of nine points each. Center pulled in a season-high eight rebounds.
Ali Ford paced the Phoenix with 16 points, but was held scoreless in the first half. She was just 2-of-10 from behind the arc. Aiesha Harper also reached double-figures with 11 points.
Up just 39-34 in the second half after a Lisa Archie hit a layup, Davidson turned up the offensive and defensive intensity to blow the game open. Aleksandracivius sparked the offense, scoring nine points in a 21-0 run that turned the four-point lead into a 60-34 lead with 8:28 left. Center, Ottaway, Jasmine Calin and Barbara Sitton also scored during the run.
During the spurt, the defense forced six turnovers and held Elon without a field goal for seven minutes as the Phoenix was just 0-for-6 from the floor.
The lead never went below 20 points the rest of the way, reaching as high as 29 twice in the final three minutes of the contest.
Aleksandravicius and Murray opened the new stanza scoring 18 of the first 20 Wildcat points to push a 28-22 halftime lead to 48-34 at the 11:42 mark.
The first half saw both teams struggle from the field, shooting just 33 percent each. The Wildcats led the majority of the half with Sarah giving them a 17-13 lead at the 7:14 mark on a power drive to the basket. The junior did a great job off the bench filling in for Aleksandravicius, who picked up two quick fouls in just five minutes and had to sit the remainder of the period.
Davis later converted a three-point play for a 22-18 lead and a fastbreak bucket off a steal by Sitton made it 28-20 with 1:32 left.
Aiesha Harper kept things close for Elon with nine first-half points, including scoring seven of the last nine Phoenix points.
Davidson stays on the road for a 7 p.m. contest at UNCG on Tuesday, Feb. 14.
Samford 67, Georgia Southern 41
BIRMINGHAM, Ala.—The Samford women’s basketball team held Georgia Southern to just 26.3 percent shooting, including 17.4 percent from three-point range, on its way to a 67-41 Southern Conference win over the Eagles Saturday afternoon at the Pete Hanna Center.
Samford held Georgia Southern to just 11 points in the first half, on its way to a 31-11 lead at the break. The 11 point total in the first half was a season low for the first half and tied a season low for either half for the Bulldog defense.
The Samford bench scored 28 points, compared to 18 for the GSU reserves. The Bulldogs outrebounded the Eagles, 38-35, and Samford scored 20 points off of 14 GSU turnovers.
Samford was led in scoring by sophomore guard Shelby Campbell with 15 points. Junior forward Hannah Dawson and freshman forward Taylor Reece added 10 points each. Dawson led the team in rebounding, pulling down seven boards in the win. Sophomore guard Kendall Schwantz grabbed a career-high six rebounds, to go along with her five points.
For Georgia Southern, Samantha Williams led the way with nine points. Anna Claire Knight added seven points for the Eagles.
In the first half, Samford scored the first eight points of the game to take an early lead. Georgia Southern fought back to cut the lead to three points at 12-9 with 11:27 to go in the first half after a three-pointer by Knight.
Samford answered with a 19-0 run to take a 31-9 lead with 3:18 to go in the half after a three-point play by Campbell. Georgia Southern’s next basket came with 39 seconds to go in the first half on a jumper by Knight to make the score 31-11 heading into halftime. The shot ended a GSU drought that lasted nearly 11 minutes.
In the first half, the Eagles made just 16 percent of their shots, and 12.5 percent of their three-pointers. Samford made 46.7 percent of its shots in the first half.
Samford pushed its lead out to 24 points early in the second half at 38-14 with 16:43 to go after a three-pointer by Reece. Georgia Southern scored the next eight points to cut the Samford lead to 16 at 38-22 with 14:07 to go after a layup by Williams.
With Samford leading, 42-27, the Bulldogs went on an 11-2 run to push its lead out to 24 points at 53-29 with 9:48 left after a three-pointer by Schwantz. Samford pushed its lead out to as much as 28 points at 67-39 with 1:28 to go after a pair of free throws by Campbell.
With the win, Samford improved to 13-9 overall and 9-5 in Southern Conference play. Samford is now 8-0 in home games so far this season. Georgia Southern drops to 7-17 overall and 3-12 in league play.
Samford will return to action on Monday, Feb. 13, when the Bulldogs play host to College of Charleston. The game is Samford’s Play4Kay Game to raise money and awareness for breast cancer research. The game is scheduled for a 7 p.m. start from the Pete Hanna Center.
Appalachian State 79, UNCG 60
BOONE, N.C. – Anna Freeman scored 18 points and pulled down 10 rebounds to record her 15th career double-double and lead Appalachian State University women’s basketball to a 79-60 win against visiting Southern Conference foe UNCG on Saturday at the Holmes Center.
The Mountaineers (20-3, 14-1 SoCon) picked up their ninth-straight victory and defeated the Spartans (3-21, 2-14) for the fifth-straight time to improve to 29-28 all-time against UNCG.
Appalachian State jumped out to a quick 11-point lead (13-2) on a layup by Maryah Sydnor with 15:33 remaining in the first half before UNCG cut the deficit to five points (15-10) with just over 11 minutes left in the period.
The Apps responded with a 13-0 run to push the lead back into double-digits (23-10) and never led by less than 11 points for the duration of the contest.
Katie Mallow connected on a jumper with 3:40 remaining in the half to put the Mountaineers up by 20 points (37-17) for the first time and help propel ASU to a 40-24 halftime lead.
UNCG cut the deficit 15 points early on, but never really threatened in the second half as Appalachian led by as many as 23 points on a three-pointer from Freeman with 12:15 left in the game.
As a team, the Mountaineers shot 51.7 percent (30-for-58) from the floor, 64.0 percent (16-for-25) from the charity stripe and went 3-for-8 from beyond the arc.
UNCG was held to just 37.7 percent (20-for-53) on the day but were able to convert on 81.0 percent (17-for-21) of their free throws. ASU won the rebounding battle by a 38-30 margin.
The Apps forced 22 turnovers, collected 12 steals and dished out 19 assists while the Spartans had 10 steals, 10 assists and four blocks.
Freeman led all players in rebounding while dishing out six assists. Courtney Freeman led all players in scoring with 19 points while grabbing three boards and notching three assists. Sydnor had 14 points and five rebounds while Mallow scored nine off the bench.
UNCG was led on offense by Jazz Weaver, who scored 13 points and was 8-for-8 from the charity stripe. Natalie Headley also hit double-digits with 10 points while Janae’ Stevenson scored eight and grabbed a team-high nine rebounds.
The Mountaineers return to action when they face Elon at 6 p.m. on Monday at the Holmes Center.
Chattanooga 57, College of Charleston 31
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. --- The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team defeated the College of Charleston Saturday night at the McKenzie Arena 57-31 in Southern Conference action. The win moves the Lady Mocs to 17-7 overall and 12-3 in league play while the Cougars fall to 6-19 on the year and 5-11 in conference play.
Chattanooga dominated the glass by a 54-36 margin with 20 offensive boards. This marks the fifth time this season the Lady Mocs have recorded more than 50 rebounds in a game.
Junior Kayla Christopher led all scorers with 11 points and had four rebounds, four assists and two steals in the win. She was 5-of-9 from the field in 27 minutes of play.
Sophomore Taylor Hall led the way with 12 rebounds, six off the offensive glass and tossed in five points with two steals. Sophomore Alex Black had nine points for UTC making 3-of-6 from the floor and was 2-for-2 from the free throw line.
Senior Whitney Hood and sophomore Faith Dupree each had seven points for the Lady Mocs. Hood pulled down five rebounds and dished out three assists while Dupree had four rebounds, three on the offensive end.
The Cougars scored first and got out to a 10-6 lead on a jumper from Cathryn Hardy at the 13:39 mark of the first half, their largest of the game. It would be short-lived as the Lady Mocs would take the lead for good on a pair of left-handed layups from Dupree at the start of an 18-4 run. Chattanooga led 24-14 at the break.
The Lady Mocs started the second half with a 9-2 run to push the lead to 33-16 with 13:47 to play. Chattanooga continued to increase its lead with its largest, 57-29, coming with 52 seconds remaining on a 3-pointer from sophomore Destiny Bramblett who had a season-high five points on the night.
Lady Mocs Head Coach Wes Moore cleared the bench with all 14 getting playing time. Chattanooga’s bench outscored the Cougars 27-14 and UTC put in 34 points in the paint compared to CofC’s 14. The Lady Mocs forced 16 turnovers and converted that into 18 points and had 12 second chance points off 20 offensive rebounds. UTC also outscored the Cougars 8-0 on fast break points.
Chattanooga was just 1-of-10 from beyond the arc in the first half and was 3-of-13 in the second. After shooting 29.4 percent (10-of-34) in the first half from the field, UTC connected on 41.4 percent (12-of-29) in the second outscoring the Cougars 33-17 in the latter frame.
The College of Charleston was led in scoring by Megan Fischer’s seven points. Cathryn Hardy had six points and a team-high six rebounds while Deidre Ramer had six points and five rebounds. Latisha Harris had six boards, all defensive, and Jillian Brown led the team with four assists.
Chattanooga will remain at home to host Georgia Southern (7-17, 3-12 SoCon) Monday night at the Roundhouse. The game is set to tip off at 7 p.m. and will be carried live on ESPN 105.1 FM “The Zone”. Live stats, video and audio streaming will be available at GoMocs.com.