Samford 65, UNCG 52GREENSBORO, N.C. – The Samford women’s basketball team shot 56.8 percent and held UNCG to just 24.1 percent shooting to earn a 65-52 Southern Conference road win over the Spartans Monday night at Fleming Gymnasium.
The win was the 200th of Morris’ career. He is the all-time winningest coach in the history of the program with a career record of 200-144.
In the win, Samford was led by its two seniors. Shelby Campbell scored 16 points, grabbed six rebounds and dished out four assists. Christy Robinson scored 13 points and pulled down six rebounds in the game.
Behind Campbell and Robinson for Samford, sophomore Lydia McGee scored nine points. Freshman Brittany Stevens scored eight points, while freshman Hannah Nichols added seven points.
For UNCG, Lucy Mason and Breonna Patterson scored nine points each. Janae’ Stevenson added eight points for the Spartans.
Samford led throughout most of the first half. The Bulldogs jumped out to an early 6-1 lead after a jumper by Keke Fletcher with 16:22 to go in the first half. After UNCG cut the lead to three at 9-6, Samford went on a 15-7 run to push its lead out to 11 points at 24-13 with 6:08 to go in the first half after a three-pointer by Campbell.
The Spartans fought back to cut the lead to six points at 26-20 with 4:36 to go in the first half after two free throws by Stevenson. Samford took a 28-22 advantage into halftime.
Samford pushed its lead out to eight points early in the second half at 32-24 with 17:25 to go after a layup by Campbell. UNCG fought back to cut the lead to five points at 32-27 with 16:22 left in the game. Samford, however, scored eight of the next 12 points to increase its lead to 40-31 with 12:35 to go after a layup by Nichols.
UNCG came back with a 7-1 run to cut the Samford lead to just three points at 41-38 with 9:43 left in the contest after a free throw by Jade Scaife. Samford answered with a 9-0 run to take a 12 point lead at 50-38 with 7:51 left after a jumper by Amara Mayers. UNCG could get no closer than six points the rest of the way, and Samford hit several key free throws down the stretch to pull away for the win.
Samford’s 56.8 shooting percentage marks a season high for the Bulldogs. Samford shot 33.3 percent from three-point range in the win.
Chattanooga 66, Elon 43ELON, N.C. --- The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team outscored Elon 25-1 over the final 9:05 of the game to come away with a 66-43 Southern Conference win over the Phoenix Monday night at Alumni Gym. Chattanooga improves to 8-3 overall and 2-0 in league play while Elon dops to 3-6 on the year and 1-1 in SoCon action.
With 12:35 to play in the game, Sam Coffer drained Elon’s second 3-pointer of the game to give the Phoenix a 40-37 lead. Elon went 0-for-13 from the field for the remainder of the game and committed eight turnovers in that time.
At the 11:56 mark, UTC sophomore Alicia Payne was fouled as she drove to the basket and converted a 3-point play and tied the game 40-40. Elon went 2-of-4 from the free throw line over the next 1:51 and Chattanooga was 1-of-2 over that time to make it a 42-41 advantage for Elon with 9:05 to play. It would be the last lead for the Phoenix.
Payne made her first free throw to tie the game 42-42 with 8:55 to play, but missed her second. Junior Ka’Vonne Towns grabbed the rebound and put it back up for a 44-42 lead. Chattanooga went on to score 22 more points and allowed Elon just one free throw for the double-digit win.
After Chattanooga held a 21-14 lead midway through the first half, Elon came back and the two teams traded the lead three times before Chattanooga knotted the game 30-30 on a layup from senior Taylor Hall at halftime.
The second half started the same way with the lead trading back-and-forth three times and three more ties before Chattanooga pulled away.
Senior Ashlen Dewart went 13-of-16 from the field and 2-of-2 from the 3-point line. She had a game-high 29 points to go along with 10 rebounds for her second double-double of the year. She added in three assists in 33 minutes on the floor.
Hall recorded her sixth straight double-double, seventh of the year, with 13 points and a game-high 12 rebounds. She had three assists, three steals and two blocked shots. Payne was 3-of-3 from the field and had eight points, three rebounds, three assists and three steals.
After starting the game shooting nearly 73 percent on an 8-of-11 effort, Chattanooga went 1-for-8 from the field and shot just 37.1 percent (13-35) in the first half. In the second half, UTC went 15-of-31 (48.4%) and shot 42.4 percent for the game. Chattanooga was 3-of-11 from the 3-point line and 7-of-10 from the free throw line.
UTC outscored Elon 38-20 in the paint and 20-10 off turnovers and got 17 points from the bench compared to seven for the Phoenix.
Georgia Southern 79, Wofford 70STATESBORO, Ga. – Anna Claire Knight recorded 19 points, and all 11 Eagles who played scored as Georgia Southern picked up a 79-70 Southern Conference women’s basketball victory over Wofford Monday night in Hanner Fieldhouse.
Lacie Dowling netted 12 points for Georgia Southern (3-7, 1-1 SoCon), and Briana Jones collected 11 points and eight rebounds. MiMi DuBose scored nine points and Danielle Spencer tallied eight points and nine rebounds.
Lauren Kirby led Wofford (2-7, 0-2 SoCon) with 20 points on 10-of-12 shooting from the floor and corralled 10 rebounds. Chanel Stokes scored 15 points, with 11 coming from the free-throw line, and Jordan Frazier posted 14 points and four steals.
Knight scored seven points in a 13-0 GSU run late in the first half as the Eagles opened a 34-19 cushion. Kirby hit a jumper from the baseline just before time expired and Georgia Southern led 34-21 at the break.
The Eagles stayed hot early in the second frame, scoring on their first four possessions and hitting six of their first nine shots from the field. Leading 47-33, Knight and Dowling hit consecutive triples as the Eagles scored 12 straight points to open a 26-point cushion, their largest of the game, with 12:11 to play.
The margin stayed over 20 points until the last four minutes of the contest as the Terriers went on a 10-0 run to cut the lead to 72-62 on a Logan Morris jumper with 2:02 remaining. DuBose halted the run with a pair of free throws for GSU, and the advantage stayed in double digits until a Morris jumper made the score 77-68 with 13 seconds left. The Terriers fouled DuBose, who notched two more from the charity stripe to seal the win.
Georgia Southern held Wofford to 27 percent shooting in the first half, but the Terriers shot 57 percent in the second, led by Kirby’s 16 points in the frame. The Eagles recorded a season-high 11 steals and turned 15 Wofford turnovers into 25 points.
Western Carolina 56, Charleston Southern 47CULLOWHEE, N.C. – Western Carolina women’s basketball (6-3) extended its winning streak to six straight with a 56-47 home win against Charleston Southern (3-5) Monday in the Ramsey Center.
The winning streak is the longest since 2009 when the Catamounts won 10 straight. The Catamounts haven’t lost in the month of December with a 3-0 record.
A three-pointer by junior Makensey Campbell, with 2:04 left in the game, gave Western Carolina its first lead in the second half, 48-47. Trailing 47-45, before Campbell’s trey, the Catamounts went on to score the final 11 points of the game to secure the win.
Western Carolina was 8-of-10 from the free throw line, in the final two minutes of the game to ice the contest. Ali Lane, whose free throws was key to the 42-38 win at Presbyterian on Dec. 4, was 3-of-4 from the charity strip in the final 40 seconds of the game.
Down 29-26 at the half, Western Carolina came out of the locker room to score six straight points to knot the game to start the final 20 minutes. After the game was tied three times in the first six minutes, Charleston Southern retook the lead on a three-pointer by Anica Dotson. Charleston Southern would lead the game until Campbell hit the three-pointer in the final two plus minutes of the game.
Western Carolina kept the game in check by holding Charleston Southern to 18 points in the second half. The Catamounts had 33 points in the final 20 minutes after scoring 23 in the first half.
Both teams hit 18 field goals, and Charleston Southern connected on four three pointers, but the game was won at the free throw line. Western Carolina was 18-of-27 from the charity stripe as opposed to 7-of-15 for the Buccaneers.
For the second straight game Western Carolina did not have a player score in double figures, however, every player who saw time on the court scored. Campbell led the team with nine points and Rena Wakama and Alex Abraham each ripped down seven rebounds.
Western Carolina out-rebounded Charleston Southern 46 to 30 on the glass and held the Buccaneers to just six offensive boards.