Note: The following was written by Todd Vinyard, who will be blogging throughout the 2015-16 basketball and wrestling seasons as teams prepare to head to Asheville, N.C., in March.
The journey is under a month to go as women’s basketball and wrestling teams move forward toward the Southern Conference tournaments in Asheville. Great individual achievements and bunched-up regular-season races have highlighted the last few weeks. With the help of conference and team media relations offices, here is a quick tour of what has happened and what is coming up.
What We’ve Learned
Three at the top in wrestling: Appalachian State, Chattanooga and Gardner-Webb are all tied at 5-1 at the top of the regular-season wrestling race. The Mountaineers made things interesting with a 22-15 victory over 25th-ranked UTC.
“Our goals haven’t changed,” App State coach JohnMark Bentley told the Chattanooga Times-Free Press. “We’re focusing on March.”
The final matches of the SoCon season will be large in title importance this week. More on the three team battle for the SoCon wrestling title below.
Coming Up
Mercer, Samford first-place show down in women’s basketball: The Bears and Bulldogs meet in a battle of first-place teams Saturday at 1 p.m. in Macon, Ga.
Both teams have offensive threats and can get it done with defense.
Samford ranked third in the nation in scoring defense, allowing just 49.3 points per game. WCU scored 52 points last Saturday against the Bulldogs, which was the most points Samford has allowed in five games.
Mercer held UNCG to 25-percent shooting and forced 19 turnovers in a recent contest. The Bears created 25 points off those turnovers.
Right behind the two leaders are Chattanooga (7-2) and ETSU (6-3).
Names To Know
Chattanooga sophomore Keiana Gilbert dropped in a career-best three 3-pointers for 14 points to go along with five assists and a pair of blocked shots in a win over Furman.
VMI’s Dalton Henderson has been named the Arby’s Southern Conference Wrestler of the Week for all competition from Jan. 27 to Feb. 2. Henderson went 3-0 on the week to take first place at 125 pounds at the All-Academy Championships, hosted by the Keydets in Lexington, Va.
Senior Citadel wrestler Matt Frisch picked up his 100th career victory during the All-Academy Championships in Lexington, Va.
ETSU Junior Shamauria Bridges hit a 3-pointer at 5:51 of the third quarter of a 70-69 victory over Wofford to become the 22nd member of the school’s 1,000-point club. She is just the fourth player in ETSU history to reach this accomplishment in just three seasons.
Wofford’s Maria Corella currently is in the top 10 in 3-point shooting percentage in Terrier history. For her career, Corella has hit 77 3-point shots. Last season, she shot .354 from behind the 3-point arc, good for sixth-best in a single season in Wofford history
Sophomore guard Keli Foster shattered her previous career high with 19 points for UNCG in an 80-49 loss to Samford.
Ace Easter is averaging 15.4 points per game in Southern Conference play for Western Carolina University.
Campbell wrestler Jere Heino sealed a 19-16 win over The Citadel with a takedown over Joe Bexley in the third period of the heavyweight bout to go up 3-2 with 20 seconds left on the clock.
SIUE wrestler Jake Tindle put the match against Grand Canyon away for the Cougars with an impressive 17-0 technical fall at 197 pounds, besting Grand Canyon's Austin Trujillo. The 20-15 win didn’t come easily. SIUE won six of the 10 contested matches, five of which were by four points or fewer.
Camden Bertucci and Dustin Runzo of Davidson earned victories as the Wildcats fell to Southern Conference foe Chattanooga, 37-9.
Furman junior forward Holli Wilkins has plenty of basketball pedigree. Her father, Gerald Wilkins, was a former standout at Chattanooga and for 13 seasons in the NBA. Her brother, Damien, starred at Georgia and played 10 years in the NBA. Her uncle, Dominique Wilkins, also played at Georgia and later was a nine-time NBA All-Star in a career primarily with the Atlanta Hawks.
What To Watch For
As mentioned above, three wrestling teams are at the top of the regular-season standings. All of them have conference matchups this week.
Gardner-Webb hosts Davidson on Wednesday, Appalachian State hosts VMU on Thursday, and Chattanooga travels to The Citadel on Friday.
Should be plenty to discuss next time on the Journey to Asheville. See you then.