Samford 47, Western Carolina 38
CULLOWHEE, N.C.—The Samford women’s basketball team used another strong defensive effort to earn a Southern Conference road win at Western Carolina, 47-38 Friday evening at the Ramsey Regional Activity Center.
The win was the fourth-straight for the Bulldogs as they improve to 9-7 overall and 6-1 in Southern Conference play. With Chattanooga’s win at Davidson Friday night, Samford moves into a tie for first place in the league standings.
Samford held Western Carolina to just 25.0 percent shooting overall and 26.3 percent from three-point range. Samford made 35.9 percent of its shots overall and 31.3 percent of its attempts from three-point range. Western Carolina outrebounded Samford, 45-27.
The win marks the fourth time this season Samford has held an opponent under 40 points. In all nine wins so far this season, the Bulldogs have held their opponents under 50 points.
Individually for Samford, sophomore Taylor Reece led the way with 14 points and six rebounds. Senior Jazmine Martin had 13 points, while senior Hannah Dawson led the team in rebounding with nine to go along with her five points.
Western Carolina was led by Rena Wakama with 12 points. Lindsay Simpson added seven points for the Catamounts.
In the first half, the teams traded baskets for the first several minutes until, with Samford leading, 9-7, the Bulldogs went on a 9-3 run to take an 18-10 lead with 8:13 to go in the half after a three-pointer by Keke Fletcher. Samford eventually built its lead to nine points at 21-12 with 5:11 to go in the half after a three-pointer by Martin.
Western Carolina cut the lead to six points at 21-15 with 3:42 to go in the half after a three-pointer by Makensey Campbell. Samford took a 24-17 lead into halftime.
In the second half, Western Carolina cut the Samford lead to four points on three different occasions early in the half, but Samford was able to answer each time to maintain its lead. The Catamounts cut the Bulldog lead to just three points at 32-29 with 6:13 left after a free throw by Wakama.
Samford, however, answered with a 6-0 run to push its lead back out to nine points at 38-29 with 2:56 to go after a jumper by Reece. WCU scored the next five points to cut the lead back to four points at 38-34 with 2:01 left after a pair of free throws by Janae’ McKinney.
Reece and Martin each hit four free throws down the stretch to help Samford extend its lead. The Bulldogs eventually came away with a nine-point victory, winning by a score of 47-38.
Samford will return to action on Sunday, Jan. 20, when the Bulldogs play at Davidson in a key SoCon matchup. The game is scheduled for a 1 p.m. (CT) start from Davidson’s Belk Arena.
Elon 79, Furman 69
ELON, N.C. – The Elon women’s basketball team won its fifth straight game after a 79-69 victory over Furman tonight, Jan. 18, in Alumni Gym. The Phoenix had five players score in double figures, including a game-high 21 points from Ali Ford, with the majority of the scoring coming in the second half.
Elon scored its most points in a game this season off a 29-of-60 performance from the field to shoot 48 percent after scoring 40 points in the paint. The Paladins finished 24-of-65 from the field with a 36 percent shooting mark. Furman was able to control the Phoenix on the boards, winning the rebounding battle, 47-29.
Candice Silas marked her comeback from an ACL injury in a big way, scoring 11 points on 5-for-7 shooting and three rebounds in nine minutes of play in her first game since November 2011. Kelsey Evans and Kelsey Harris also finished with 11 points, while Sam Coffer added 10 of her own.
Ford finished 6-of-13 from the field, including 2-of-4 from long distance, and knocked down all seven of her shots from the charity stripe. The senior also tied her career-high of eight assists for the third time this season. Harris dished out a new career-high six assists and was the team’s leader on the glass with seven rebounds.
On defense, both Evans and Jessica Farmer contributed two blocks each. That leaves Evans two blocks shy of breaking Elon’s all-time blocked shots record.
The Phoenix opened up its largest lead of the first half after a three by Zora Stephenson put the maroon and gold up by seven, 12-5, with 14:51 to play. After a basket by Silas left Elon with a five-point edge, 20-15, the Paladins managed a 6-0 run to take its first lead of the game, 21-20, at the 5:27 mark.
Furman led by four, 26-22, with a minute and a half left in the first frame before a layup by Harris and two good free throws by Autumn Carter tied the score at the break.
Elon came to life in the second half, using a 24-11 run, capped by a three-point play from Silas, to open up a 13-point edge with 10:47 left in the game.
Still up by 13 with 8:17 on the clock, Elon increased its advantage to 22 points, 68-46, in a span of just over two minutes after four points from both Ford and Harris and two from Coffer.
Furman cut the maroon and gold’s lead to 10, 72-62, with two and a half to play but a three by Ford as the shot clock wound down kept the lead alive and well. It was too little too late for the Paladins when the differential became eight with 21 seconds left and Elon held on to claim another conference win.
Chattanooga 60, Davidson 56
DAVIDSON, N.C. --- Four University of Tennessee at Chattanooga players combined for 46 points to lead the Lady Mocs to a 60-56 win over Davidson. Chattanooga improves to 13-3 overall and 6-1 in Southern Conference women’s basketball action while the Wildcats’ even out its record at 8-8 and suffer their first league loss to move to 5-1.
Junior Faith Dupree (Knoxville, Tenn.) made her return to the lineup and scored 11 points in 14 minutes making 3-of-10 from the field and 5-of-6 from the free throw line. She started the game with eight of Chattanooga’s first 10 points going 2-of-2 from the field and 4-for-4 from the charity stripe.
Seniors Kayla Christopher (Oliver Springs, Tenn.) and Kylie Lambert (Etowah, Tenn.) led Chattanooga with 12 points each. Lambert had five rebounds, two assists and two steals and Christopher was 2-of-4 from the 3-point line. Junior Alex Black (Memphis, Tenn.) chipped in 11 points and grabbed six rebounds and classmate Ashlen Dewart went 4-of-9 from the floor with nine points.
After getting down 8-2 at the 17:20 mark of the first half, Dupree entered the game and hit both of her shots to make it a 10-6 with 16:18 to play in the opening half. Over the next 1:18, Dupree was fouled twice in the act of shooting and sank all four free throws to tie it up 10-10 at the 15:00 mark.
Davidson got back out to a 15-10 lead a short time later, but Chattanooga mounted a comeback to tie it up 15-15 on a 3-pointer from Lambert with 11:59 left in the half. The two teams battled back and forth, tying it up four more times over the half. The Lady Mocs went 6-for-6 over the final six minutes of the half and outscored 11-0 over the final 2:09 to lead 35-27 at the break.
The Lady Mocs pushed its lead up to 43-31 on a jumper from junior Meghan Downes (Newnan, Ga.) at the 16:14 mark, their largest of the game. However, the Wildcats gained the momentum, scoring 11 straight points over a 3:21 period to cut the lead to 43-42 with 8:47 to play.
After a scoring drought of 6:47 and a near loss of the lead, Christopher scored eight straight points, including both of her 3-pointers to shift the wave back to Chattanooga pushing the lead to 51-45 with 6:16 to play.
The Lady Mocs never lost the lead and went out front by eight, 55-47 with 3:10 to play, but the Wildcats managed to get back to within one with just 1:38 to play. Katrin Cheimeka nailed a 3-pointer then followed that with fastbreak layup after a turnover by UTC to make it 55-52. Barbara Sitton then hit a jumper to make it 55-54.
Davidson’s Cheimeka missed a pair of free throws that would have given the Wildcats’ the lead. Christopher grabbed the rebound and was fouled by Cheimeka.
After making 6-of-8 free throws over the majority of the game, the Lady Mocs shooting woes at the charity stripe returned making just 3-of-6. Christopher hit the first of her two to give UTC a slim 56-54 lead with 48 seconds to play.
Davidson grabbed the rebound, but Cheimeka missed her 3-point attempt and fouled Black on the rebound. Black made the first of her two free throws to make it a 57-54 game with 24.5 seconds to play. After missing the second free throw, the ball was knocked out of bounds by Davidson and Chattanooga had the ball underneath.
A quick inbounds play from Black to Lambert made it 59-54 with seven seconds on the clock. Davidson missed a jumper on the other end by Laura Murray and she fouled Christopher on the rebound. Christopher made the first of her two free throws for the final score, 60-54.
Davidson’s Sophia Aleksandravicius had a game-high 16 points and just missed a double-double with nine rebounds. She had two assists, four steals and two blocked shots. Murray scored nine points and had five rebounds along with three assists and three steals. Hannah Early chipped in nine points for the Wildcats and Sitton had eight points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals.
Chattanooga outrebounded Davidson 35-31 led by Hall’s team-best seven. UTC was 22-52 (42.3%) from the field and 7-of-13 (53.8%) from the 3-point line. Davidson outscored Chattanooga 28-22 in the paint and 16-13 off the bench. However, Chattanooga held an 11-4 advantage on second chance points getting 10 offensive rebounds to the Wildcats’ eight. UTC scored 17 points off 15 Davidson turnovers and the Wildcats had 16 off 16 Chattanooga miscues.
Appalachian State 63, College of Charleston 55
CHARLESTON, S.C. - Appalachian State University women’s basketball fought past a pesky College of Charleston squad to a 63-55 victory at TD Arena in Charleston on Friday night.
Maryah Sydnor led the Mountaineers in scoring, while Courtney Freeman grabbed her second double-dobule of the season as Appalachian improves to 11-3 overall and 5-1 in SoCon.
Sydnor matched her second highest game of the season with 21 points against the Cougars, while Anna Freeman added 17 for the Mountaineers.
In a game that saw the first-half score knotted four times, the Mountaineers came out ahead. A pair of Megan Fischer free-throws would square up the score at 15 with 11:44 remaining in the half, and shift the momentum to College of Charleston, who ensued on a 9-0 run and pulled ahead by 11 (15-26). A jumper from Courtney Freeman at the 5:05 mark would pull things back into perspective for the Mountaineers, who unleashed on a 17-4 run to enter halftime with a two point lead (32-30).
The Mountaineer offense persisted through the second half, controlling the lead until the 5:17 mark when a Jillian Borwn free-throw edged the Cougars by one and allowed Charleston a quick glimpse of the lead. Raven Gary responded with a defensive rebound and a quick jumper to reclaim the upper-hand (52-51), but Charleston’s Latisha Harris managed to knot the score with a free-throw shot (52-52). Anna Freeman quickly dissolved a possible Cougar-comeback when she drained a three with 3:02 remaining (55-52). Courtney Freeman’s jumper at the 2:18 mark made it a two-possession game for App (57-52), while Maryah Sydnor sealed the win with three trips to the line (66-53).
The Apps shot just 39.3 percent on the night, but grabbed 45 rebounds against the Cougars. The win marks Appalachian’s eighth-straight victory against College of Charleston.