College of Charleston 74, Davidson 71

DAVIDSON, N.C. – Four players scored in double-figures, led by 21 points from junior Afreyea Tolbert, as the College of Charleston women’s basketball team handed Davidson their second conference loss of the season, 74-71 Monday at Belk Arena.

Tolbert added 10 rebounds for the double-double and senior Latisha Harris also had a double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Junior Alyssa Frye and sophomore Mikaela Hopkins each added 10 points for the Cougars.

The win broke a string of four consecutive defeats to Davidson and the Cougars won for just the third time in the history of the program on the road in the all-time series with the Wildcats.

Harris led the Cougars (11-12, 7-7) with 12 first-half points as CofC took a 33-20 lead into halftime.

Davidson (14-9, 11-2) came out strong in the second half and cut the Cougars lead to six at 41-35 with 15:36 to play. The Cougars responded as they used a 17-9 run to go up 14 at 58-44 with 9:18 to go.

Davidson then caught fire from beyond the three-point arc as they hit six threes in the second half and used a 7-1 run late in the game to go up one at 66-65 with 2:27 to play.

The Cougars got back-to-back jumpers from Hopkins and Frye to go up three, 69-66 with 1:41 to play in the game. Davidson would cut the lead to one at 72-71 on a three-pointer with 33 seconds on the clock.

Davidson missed a jumper with 14 seconds left and Harris grabbed the rebound and was fouled. Harris made both free-throws to put the Cougars up 74-71. Davidson had one last chance as they missed a three-pointer and Tolbert grabbed the rebound to secure the victory.

Wofford 54, Western Carolina 50

SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Junior forward Shauna Terry scored a career-high 21 points, and just missed a double-double with nine rebounds, in Western Carolina women’s basketball’s (6-17, 4-10 Southern Conference) 54-50 loss at Wofford (7-14, 2-11 SoCon) Monday at Benjamin Johnson Arena.

Terry scored almost half of Western Carolina’s point total and notched three blocks in the game. She now has 95 blocks in her career and needs nine to move into third place.

Western Carolina led 50-49 when Terry connected on a lay-up with 3:06 remaining in the game. After Terry’s field goal, the Catamounts were held scoreless the remainder of the contest and Wofford scored the final five points of the game to secure the win.

It was a slow start as Wofford led 1-0 after the first media timeout in the first half. Terry came off the bench, after the first media timeout, to spark the Catamounts scoring six of the team’s first eight points.

Western Carolina led 26-20 at the half and scored the opening basket of the second half when Alex Abraham hit a lay-up to start the final 20 minutes. The Catamounts held Wofford at bay for the first eight minutes of the second half before a pair of free throws by the Terriers’ Jordan Frazier tied the game, for the first time, at 32 with 12:52 remaining.

The game would be tied two more times with the third at 46 with 4:22 remaining in the game. Western Carolina’s Rena Wakama answered Logan Morris’s free throw to tie the game with a jump shot to give the Catamounts back the lead, 48-46. The game changer was a three-pointer by Wofford’s Morgan Wrightson, at the 3:59 mark, turning the tide of the game. Wrightson’s three-pointer spearheaded an 8-2 run by Wofford to end the game.

Western Carolina had just one three-pointer in the game and Wofford had five. Western Carolina outshot Wofford with a 40.7 percent field goal percentage to the Terriers’ 32.7. The Catamounts also won the rebounding 40-34. However, the game was won at the free throw line as Wofford was 17-of-24 from the charity stripe while the Catamounts were 5-of-12.

Chattanooga 74, UNCG 68

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. --- University of Tennessee at Chattanooga senior Kayla Christopher (Oliver Springs, Tenn.) drained the first of three consecutive 3-pointers past the midway mark of the second half, to spark a 14-0 UTC run capped off by freshman Red Payne’s (Memphis, Tenn.) trey propelling the Lady Mocs to a 74-68 win over UNCG at the McKenzie Arena Monday night.

The win was Chattanooga’s 11th straight this season and 24th consecutive at the Roundhouse. The Lady Mocs improve to 21-3 overall and 14-1 in Southern Conference play. The Spartans, fresh off an upset win at Samford, fall to 5-18 on the year and 2-12 in league action.

Christopher started the run with a defensive rebound. She fed freshman Tatianna Jackson (Atlanta, Ga.) on the fast break, but the shot wouldn’t fall. Junior Ashlen Dewart corralled the rebound but was surrounded by defenders. She fed it to Christopher in the left corner who snapped the nets and brought the crowd to its feet giving the Lady Mocs the lead for good at 51-50 with 8:40 to play.

Christopher nailed her second from the same corner just moments later and got her third in the run after a timeout with 7:10 to play putting Chattanooga up 57-50. Dewart converted an inbounds pass for a layup followed by Payne’s 3-pointer to give the Lady Mocs their largest lead of the game at 62-50 with 4:55 to play.

Chattanooga would hit the 12-point mark twice more in the closing minutes, but the Spartans were able to cut it to six with four seconds to play on a layup from Janae’ Stevenson.

Four Lady Mocs hit double figures led by Christopher’s 20-point effort and five assists. She was 5-of-10 from beyond the arc and now has 216 career 3-pointers, tied with former Lady Moc Katasha Brown (2002-06) for second on UTC’s all-time list and third in the Southern Conference.

Dewart recorded her fourth double-double of the year with 19 points and 10 rebounds. In her first start, Jackson was 4-of-8 from the field and 3-for-3 from the free throw line for 11 points and eight rebounds, five offensive, and four assists. Junior Faith Dupree (Knoxville, Tenn.) put in 10 points in just 12 minutes with a pair of assists. Combined with her performance Saturday, she has 21 points in just 19 minutes over two games. Payne had four assists and four steals on the night to go along with her three points and two rebounds.

The Lady Mocs started slow again, allowing UNCG to get out to an early lead. UTC battled back to get up front seven straight points from Dewart to make it 9-6 at the 15:32 mark of the early period. Over the next 2:19, there would be two ties and two lead changes. UTC grabbed the lead with 13:13 on the clock on a layup by Jackson to make it 16-14, but the Spartans would not go away.

Chattanooga’s largest lead of the first half was 27-20 at the 5:22 mark on a 3-pointer by Christopher but UNCG’s Jessica Collins would hit two of her four first-half 3-pointers to give the Spartans a 32-31 lead at the break.

The lead bounced back and forth over the first few minutes of the second half but UNCG forced five Chattanooga turnovers and outscored UTC 7-0 to take a 43-37 lead with 13:47 to play. The Lady Mocs got the next seven points with Dupree hitting a layup and Christopher putting in five to put UTC back out front, briefly, at 44-43.

Collins answered with her fifth 3-pointer of the game to retake the lead, 46-44. After two more ties and two more UNCG leads, Christopher started the 14-0 run and Chattanooga never trailed again.

Chattanooga outrebounded UNCG 42-23 with 19 offensive boards for 19 second chance points. The teams were evenly matched in the paint with 40 points apiece and the Spartans forced 19 UTC turnovers for a 17-14 advantage in points off turnovers. The Lady Mocs had a season-high 21 assists and got huge numbers from their bench for a second straight night, outscoring UNCG 17-3.

Appalachian State 68, Furman 58

BOONE, N.C. – A strong second half helped propel Appalachian State University basketball past Furman by a 68-58 final on Monday at the Holmes Center.

The Mountaineers (15-6, 9-4 SoCon) downed the Paladins (10-13, 6-8) for the second time this season and the fifth-straight time in the series.

The fast-paced Apps struggled through a sloppy first half as Furman dictated the half with a slower game, but the Mountaineers never allowed the Paladin lead to exceed four points. Freshman LaShawna Gatewood made her first career start against Furman and opened play with a layup (2-0). Five plays and 3:10 later, Furman took control of the lead off a Brittany Hodges layup (7-6).  Appalachian would manage to knot the score five times in the remaining 16:33. With 1:41 left in the first period and Furman ahead by one (28-27), Brittany Hodges sent Raven Gary to the line for two, knotting the score for the sixth time (28-28). In the final six seconds leading to halftime, Sydnor grabbed a steal and shot a jumper for two, giving the Mountaineers a two-point advantage (30-28) heading into the locker room.

Anna Freeman led first-half scoring with 12 points, along with eight rebounds, while Sydnor grabbed three steals.

Appalachian opened the second half strong and led by as many as 14 points en route to another Southern Conference victory. Holli Wilkins earned Furman a brief advantage in the early minutes of the half, including a jumper at 19:31 and a layup 1:11 later to knot the score twice more (32-32).  Wilkins edged the Purple & White with a free throw shot off a Gary foul (33-32), followed by a basket seconds later (35-32).  Gary responded with a quick jumper to pull the lead back in Appalachian's favor (36-35), and climb from there, reaching a 14 point lead with 2:43 remaining.

Anna Freeman led all players with 24 points and 12 rebounds, while Maryah Sydnor scored 19 and grabbed three steals. Kelsey Sharkey poured in 10 to go along with seven boards.

The Apps shot just 34.5 percent (10-of-29) in the first half, but turned it on in the second half and connected on 50.0 percent of their shots over the game's final 20 minutes.

Samford 65, Elon 59

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.—Samford senior guard Jazmine Martin scored 23 points to lead the Bulldog women’s basketball team to a 65-59 Southern Conference win over Elon Monday evening at the Pete Hanna Center.

The Bulldogs committed just 12 turnovers in Monday night’s game after committing 26 miscues in the team’s earlier meeting with Elon on Jan. 5. Samford out-rebounded Elon, 39-38 in the win.

Martin, a native of Hoover, Ala., made 8-of-13 shots from the floor, and 4-of-7 from three-point range. In addition to her 23 points, Martin also had six rebounds and four assists.

Behind Martin for Samford, Taylor Reece scored 18 points, while Hannah Dawson had seven points and 10 rebounds. Keke Fletcher had six points and five rebounds for the Bulldogs.

For Elon, Kelsey Evans led the way with 21 points and seven rebounds. Ali Ford scored 13 points, while Zora Stephenson added nine points for the Phoenix.

Elon jumped out to an early 5-2 lead with 17:44 left in the first half after a three-point play by Evans. Samford, however, answered with an 8-0 run to take a 10-5 lead with 12:39 to go in the half after a three-pointer by Fletcher. Elon scored the next four points to cut the Samford lead to one point at 10-9 with 10:35 left in the first half after a jumper by Evans.

Samford answered with a 6-0 run to push its lead out to seven points at 16-9 with 7:11 left in the opening half after a pair of free throws by Krista Stricklin. Elon scored the next seven points to tie the score at 16-16 with 5:44 left in the half after a jumper by Evans. Samford, however, scored 10 of the next 14 points to take a 26-20 lead with 3:45 left in the half after a pair of free throws by Martin.

Elon scored the next five points to cut the lead back to one point at 26-25 with 2:03 left in the half after a jumper by Shon Redmond. The Bulldogs scored the final five points of the half to take a six-point lead into halftime, 31-25.

The teams traded baskets through the first part of the second half. With Samford leading, 42-38, the Bulldogs went on an 8-0 run to extend its lead to 12 points at 50-38 with 9:01 to go after a jumper by Reece. With Samford leading, 55-42, Elon scored the next six points to cut the lead to seven points at 55-48 with 4:27 to go after a three-pointer by Stephenson.

Elon fought back to get to within four points at 61-57 with just 38 seconds left after a pair of free throws by Evans. Samford’s Kendall Schwantz, however, made four key free throws down the stretch to help Samford pull away for the 65-59 win.

With the win, Samford improves to 12-12 overall and 9-6 in Southern Conference play. Elon drops to 12-11 overall and 9-5 in league play.