Wofford 73, Georgia Southern 49SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The Wofford College women’s basketball team used a 27-6 run through the first 10 minutes of the second half to snap a seven-game losing streak and dismantle Georgia Southern, 73-49, Friday night at Benjamin Johnson Arena.
Leading 41-31 with 14 minutes to play in the second half, Wofford blew the game wide open. The Terriers buried three consecutive 3-pointers in a span of less than two minutes, headed by the shooting freshman Kentra Washington. The Simpsonville, S.C., native knocked down a pair in the two-minute span, and later buried her third in as many attempts to put Wofford on top by 26 with 9:31 remaining. Wofford went on to lead by as many as 28.
Washington’s 14 points tied her career-high, which she set 13 days earlier at home against Samford.
In all, 11 Terriers (6-21, 4-13 SoCon) found the scoring column in what was Wofford’s largest margin of victory against a Division-I opponent since defeating Winthrop by 26 in December of 2006. It was also the Terriers’ biggest win against a Southern Conference team since February of 2002 when they topped Davidson by 24, 77-53, at Benjamin Johnson Arena.
Wofford shot 46.8 percent (29-62 FG) on Friday, marking season-highs in both field goal percentage and field goals made. The Terriers drained eight 3-pointers to tie for their most of the season, and dished out a season-high 14 assists.
Head coach Edgar I. Farmer, Jr., praised the entire squad for a complete team effort.
Four Terriers reached double figures. Adding to Washington’s 14, senior Logan Morris had 13 points on 5-of-11 shooting, filling up the stat sheet with three boards, two assists, a block and a steal. Sophomores Ashton Fleming and Chanel Stokes scored 12 and 10 points, respectively. Fleming was 5-of-7 from the field and Stokes was 4-of-6, including 2-of-3 from long range.
Sophomore Jordan Frazier entered the game as Wofford’s leading scorer at 13.9 points per game. She scored six on Friday but found other ways to contribute, gathering a career-and-game-high eight rebounds, dishing out a game-high three assists and reaching her season average of three steals. The 5-foot-2 guard even rose up to earn the fifth block of her career and third this season.
Aside from the offensive outburst, Wofford limited Georgia Southern (9-19, 7-10 SoCon) to just 22 points on 31-percent shooting in the second half. The Terrier defense came up with six of their nine steals and three of their five blocks in the final 20 minutes, ending the game with a 19-13 advantage in the turnover department. Wofford also had a 41-34 edge in rebounds.
The win bumped the Terriers back above .500 at home this season, where they are now 6-5.
Furman 69, Davidson 62GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Holli Wilkins scored 16 points and Brittany Hodges registered her 13th double-double of the season with 14 points and 13 rebounds to power Furman past Davidson, 69-62, in Southern Conference women’s basketball action Friday evening at Timmons Arena.
The win, the fourth straight for Furman (17-11, 11-6 SoCon), which improves to 10-2 at home this year, secures for the Paladins the No. 2 seed in the upcoming SoCon Tournament, scheduled for March 7-10 in Asheville, N.C. Furman will play at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, Mar. 8 against the winner of a preliminary round matchup between the tournament’s No. 7 and No. 10 seed at UNC Asheville’s Kimmel Arena. The semifinals and championship game will be contested at U.S. Cellular Center in downtown Asheville.
Allison Beasley matched a season high with 13 points, and Whitney Bunn rounded out the Paladins’ double figure scoring effort with 11 points.
Hodges rounded out her double-double with three blocks and a steal, and Brigid Morrissey, who was honored in pregame ceremonies after establishing a new Furman single season assist standard in Monday’s win over Elon, added to her SoCon leading assist tally with seven dishes to go along with five points and two steals.
Laura Murray and Hannah Early led Davidson (13-15, 10-7 SoCon) with 16 points apiece, and Dakota Dukes chipped in 13 for the Wildcats.
Furman shot 44.0 percent from the field in the contest, making good on 22-of-50 shots, including 5-of-10 from 3-point range. Davidson, meanwhile, converted just 24-of-71 shots (33.8 percent).
The Paladins, who never trailed in the game, overcame nine first half turnovers to take a 35-30 lead into intermission.
A Hodges free throw and Beasley 3-pointer over the first minute-plus of the second half stretched Furman’s advantage to 39-30.
Three baskets by Murray keyed a 10-4 Davidson run that pulled the Wildcats to within three at 43-30 with 12:18 to go.
Furman responded with a 9-2 spurt over the next three minutes to go up 52-42 with just under nine minutes remaining, and twice thereafter enjoyed 10-point advantages, with the last coming on a Wilkins layup that made it 57-47 with 5:29 showing on the clock.
A Hannah Early layup with 1:20 to go pulled Davidson to within four points at 60-56, but two free throws apiece by Sarah Durdaller and Beasley, and one from Janice Roberts over the next 13 seconds quickly pushed the lead back to nine, from which Davidson had no answer.
Samford 68, UNCG 57BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Samford women’s basketball team used a strong overall performance to earn a 68-57 Southern Conference win over UNCG Friday evening at the Pete Hanna Center.
With the win, Samford improves to 10-18 overall and 8-9 in Southern Conference play. Samford’s win, paired with Georgia Southern’s loss to Wofford gives Samford a one-game lead on the Eagles for sixth place in the league and a possible first-round bye in the upcoming SoCon Tournament. UNCG falls to 7-11 overall and 3-14 in SoCon play.
Samford freshman guard Kassidy Blevins tied a career high with 21 points. Redshirt freshman guard Lydia McGee scored a career-high 16 points, while grabbing four rebounds and dishing out five assists. Freshman forward Ellen Riggins had nine rebounds and eight rebounds, while senior center Christy Robinson added nine rebounds.
For UNCG, Lucy Mason led the way with 21 points. Jarae Savage scored 15 points and grabbed nine rebounds.
In the first half, UNCG jumped out to an early 6-3 lead with 16:46 to go in the first half following a layup by Janae’ Stevenson. Samford went on a 9-0 run to take a 12-6 lead with 11:31 left after a layup by McGee.
With Samford leading, 17-11, UNCG went on a 10-0 run to take a 21-17 lead with 3:59 left in the half after a jumper by Stevenson. Samford scored the next five points to take a 22-21 lead with 2:58 left in the half after a jumper by Blevins. After UNCG took the lead back at 23-22, Samford scored six of the last seven points of the half to take a 28-24 lead into halftime.
UNCG came back to take a one-point lead early in the second half at 29-28 with 19:08 to go after a pair of free throws by Mason. Samford answered with a 13-2 run to take a 41-31 lead with 15:03 left in the game after a three-pointer by Blevins. Samford pushed its lead out to 12 points at 46-34 with 12:00 left after a three-pointer by McGee.
UNCG fought back to cut the Samford lead to seven points at 49-42 with 8:12 left following a layup by Jessica Collins. Samford then went on a 12-1 run to take an 18-point lead at 61-43 with 4:09 to go following a free throw by Clara Young.
With Samford holding a 66-50 advantage, UNCG scored seven of the final nine points in the game to make the final score 68-57. The win gives Samford the season sweep of the series with UNCG, as the Bulldogs defeated the Spartans, 65-52, in Greensboro, N.C., on Dec. 16.
As a team, Samford shot 51.1 percent overall, including a 45.0 percent effort from three-point range. UNCG made 36.5 percent of its shots overall and just 11.1 percent of its shots from beyond the arc.
Chattanooga 69, Elon 55CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. --- The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team stretched the nation's best home court win streak to 38 straight games Friday night at the McKenzie Arena with a 69-55 win over Elon in Southern Conference action. UTC improves to 25-3 on the year and 17-0 in league play and ran its win streak to 21 games. Elon is 13-15 overall and 9-8 in conference action.
Elon got out to a quick 8-2 start but Chattanooga bounded back into the game on an 8-0 run to make it 10-8 with 13:12 to play in the first half. The lead bounced back and forth before sophomore Alicia Payne knotted it up 16-16 with 9:18 to go in the first with a pair of free throws.
Chattanooga went 0-for-4 over the next 4:06 while Elon retook the lead with six straight points to make it 22-16 with 7:22 on the clock. UTC again mounted a mini comeback outscoring the Phoenix 9-2 to tie it up 25-25 with 3:31 to play in the opening period powered by seven points from senior Taylor Hall. The teams would again trade baskets down the stretch and UTC led 33-31 at the break.
In the second half, Chattanooga stepped up its energy. The two teams each dropped in a pair of free throws to start the latter stanza. Senior Ashlen Dewart grabbed a rebound off a block by freshman Aryanna Gilbert and threw a pass more than half to the court to freshman Chelsey Shumpert who was on a tear down the court.
UTC followed that with another fastbreak play, this time to Gilbert from Dewart to make it 39-33 less than two minutes into the period. Chattanooga continued to chip away at Elon and eventually got out to a 21-point lead on a layup by Gilbert to make it 65-44 with 5:03 to play. UTC maintained its double-digit lead over the final five minutes to gather its 33rd consecutive Southern Conference win.
Hall led three Chattanooga players in double figures with 15 points, 2 rebounds and six assists while Dewart was just shy of a double-double with 14 points and eight rebounds. She added four assists. Gilbert, with a career-high tying four steals, had 11 points on 5-of-8 shooting. Senior Alex Black had a season-high seven rebounds while adding six points.
Chattanooga outscored Elon 40-28 in the paint and scored 20 points off 21 Phoenix turnovers while Elon took advantage of 13 UTC miscues to score 10 points. Chattanooga’s bench outscored Elon 18-9 and UTC had 10 fast break points.
Elon’s Jennifer Rhodes led all scorers with 16 points and added eight rebounds while Kelsey Harris chipped in 10 points and grabbed seven boards. Sam Coffer had nine points before fouling out with 12:05 to play. Lauren Brown added eight points for the Phoenix and had a game-high seven assists.
Hall moved into a tie for eighth place in rebounding all-time at UTC with 768 and has 1,113 career points. Joyner recorded three blocked shots on the night and now has a team-high 40 on the year.