Season Stats

The top four women’s seeds all advanced to the semifinals of the Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament. Below are summaries of the action:

Lenoir-Rhyne Defeats Presbyterian, 96-87, in Overtime Thriller

Catawba Pulls Away from #8-Seed Newberry

#4 Mars Hill Advances to Semifinals with 87-73 Victory over #5 Tusculum

Lady Eagles Advance to SAC Semifinals with 84-74 Win over Bulldogs

Lenoir-Rhyne Defeats Presbyterian, 96-87, in Overtime Thriller

HICKORY, N.C. - The Lenoir-Rhyne College women's basketball team defeated Presbyterian College, 96-87, in an amazing overtime game at Shuford Gymnasium to move into the semifinals of the Food Lion/South Atlantic Conference Tournament.

After making a free throw and missing the second intentionally, L-R sophomore Casie Thomas grabbed her own rebound and found L-R sophomore Lanica Williams who drained a three-pointer as time expired to extend the game into overtime.

Led by Grady's 14 overtime points, L-R outscored Presbyterian 19-10 in the extra period to pull out the remarkable win.

Grady finished with a career-high 32 points in the win.

The number three seed, L-R (16-11, 7-7) now plays the number two seed, Carson-Newman at 6 p.m. on Saturday at CVCC in Hickory, N.C. PC finished their season 12-15, 7-7.

Offensively for the Bears, Williams contributed 22 points, while Shea Blacknell and Leslie Hinkle added 12 points each. Kim Small totaled 11 points and nine rebounds before fouling out. Blacknell also collected nine boards and two blocks.

Bonnie Werner scored a game-high 37 points, while Billie Haskins totaled 20 points in the effort for the Blue Hose. Cameron Cook came off the bench for a game-high 10 rebounds to go along with nine points.

Bonnie Werner's 37 points not only was a career-high for her, but breaks the record set by Direne Thomas during the 1991 SAC Tournament versus Elon College for the most points scored in a single tournament game. Thomas scored 36 points.

PC outshot L-R 48.1 percent to 44 percent, but the Bears held a 42-36 rebounding advantage. L-R's defense forced 16 PC turnovers. Both teams sizzled from the line with L-R making 24-of-29 attempts and PC connecting on 28-of-35 from the charity stripe. From three-point land, PC finished 7-of-12, while L-R shot 6-of-12.

In the first half, Haskins nailed a three-pointer to put PC on top 5-2, and then Grady rebounded her own miss and made the putback to pull L-R to within 5-4 early in the game. The teams traded baskets after a PC timeout. L-R took their first lead at 8-7 on a Williams' steal and layup with just under 16 minutes left.

The Bears' defense put the clamps down over the next few minutes and pushed their lead to 12-7 with 13:30 remaining. L-R maintained a 12-7 advantage until Rebecca Wessinger made a free throw with 11:59 left. L-R held a 14-10 lead with 11:30 left after the teams traded baskets.

Werner made two free throws to pull PC to within 14-12 with just over 10 minutes left. A Bears' timeout took the game to the first-half media break with L-R clinging to a 14-12 lead with 9:59 remaining.

After the timeout, Heather Burleson made a putback with nine minutes left to extend L-R's lead to 16-12, and Small hit a free throw to give L-R a 17-12 lead with eight minutes remaining. Sarah Woods hit a dribble-and-drive shot, and one minute later, Cook hit two free throws to pull PC back to within 17-16 with 6:40 left.

Lauren Dobson later tied the score at 19 with 5:40 remaining, but Small hit a jumper from the free throw line to put L-R back up by two. After an L-R timeout, Hinkle hit a pull-up jumper to give L-R a 23-20 lead, but Haskins answered with a dribble and drive score. With 3:30 left, Werner hit a jumper on PC's next possession to give the Blue Hose their first lead since leading 7-6 at the 16:05 mark.

Day-Lewis then extended PC's lead with two free throws, but Blacknell kept the Bears close with a baseline jumper. PC led by five points after a Werner three-point play with 2:40 left. Jennifer Roark made two L-R free throws, but Werner canned "three" to again extend PC's lead. Williams countered with a three-pointer from the corner which was L-R's only "three" of the half. Williams' three-pointer pull L-R to within 32-30 with one minute left.

In the last minute of the first half, Cook made two free throws, and Haskins hit an inside shot to give PC a 36-30 lead. The six-point advantage was the largest by both team in the first half.

In the second half, PC pushed an eight-point halftime lead to 10 points with two minutes gone by in the half. Hinkle hit a "three" to pull L-R to within 42-37 with 17:30 left. Blacknell knocked down a jumper from the free throw line to pull L-R to within three points with 16:45 remaining.

After PC's 11th turnover, Williams hit L-R's third three-pointer to knot the score at 42 and finish a 10-0 L-R run. The rest of the way neither team led by more than six points. Williams' "three" at the buzzer was the ninth tie of the game.

Catawba Pulls Away from #8-Seed Newberry

SALISBURY, NC - Sophomore Ashley Cox (Richmond, VA) tied a school record with seven three-pointers and scored a career-high 25 points as top-seeded Catawba used a big second half to pull away from #8-seed Newberry for an 87-58 win in opening round action of the Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Women's Basketball Tournament on Wednesday night at Goodman Gym.

Catawba improves to 23-5 overall and advances to face the winner of the Mars Hill/Tusculum quarterfinal game on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. at Catawba Valley Community College in Hickory, NC. Newberry ends its season at 2-24.

Catawba moved out to a 16-5 lead in the opening six minutes, but Newberry rallied and used a 12-3 run to grab its only lead at 26-24 on a three- pointer by Shirolyn Johnson (Irmo, SC) with 3:57 in the half. Catawba would respond with a 10-0 run to close the half and take a 34-26 lead at the break.

Newberry enjoyed a 28-17 edge on the boards in the opening half, but had 14 turnovers to just four for Catawba.

Catawba led 44-36 five minutes into the final half, then got four three- pointers from Cox in a span of 2:16 to increase the Tribe advantage to 57-36 with 12:33 left. Isiaette Darden (Wilson, NC) would add a three and Cox drained two more for a 68-42 lead with 9:03 remaining. Catawba's largest lead was 37 points at 80-43 with 5:34 to go.

Catawba set a school record by making a dozen three-pointers on the night, with 10 coming in the final half. Catawba ranked seventh in the league entering the tournament, making just under three triples per game. Newberry would hold an edge on the boards 47-41, but had 30 turnovers to just 11 for Catawba.

Four Catawba players reached double figures. Darden followed Cox with 17 points, hitting on four three-pointers, while Desiree Pugh (Norlina, NC) and Danyel Locklear (Pembroke, NC) each had 11. Locklear recorded nine rebounds. Brandy Carland (Arden, NC) led Newberry with 17 points, connecting on five triples. Kelsey Maloney (Virginia Beach, VA) added 15 points and eight rebounds, while Johnson had 11 points.

#4 Mars Hill Advances to Semifinals with 87-73 Victory over #5 Tusculum

MARS HILL, NC – The Lady Lions, the fourth seed in the 2003 Food Lion South Atlantic Conference (SAC) Tournament knocked off cross-mountain rival #5 Tusculum College tonight in Stanford Arena by 14 points to advance to the semifinal round of the event. Mars Hill will face the top-seeded Lady Indians of Catawba College at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday at CVCC in Hickory, NC.

Kristi Ferris (Knoxville, TN) and Tiffany Atkins (Barnardsville, NC) led Mars Hill to victory. The duo combined to score 51 of Mars Hill’s 87 points in the win. Atkins recorded 23 points and 10 rebounds while Ferris added 28 points hitting 10-of-13 field goal attempts. Amy Keith (Asheville, NC) rounded out the double figure scorers for Mars Hill posting 13 points in the win.

Five players scored in double figures for Tusculum. Julie Maples (Knoxville, TN) led the Pioneers with 18 points. Kari Karns (Pilot Mountain, NC), Candice Combs (Clayton, NC), and Candice Foster (Crossville, TN) each scored 13 points while Whitley Campbell (Oak Ridge, TN) finished with 11.

The first half was closely played with neither team holding a large advantage during the first 20 minutes of play. The Lady Lions took a 43-39 lead into the locker room at halftime.

After three ties and five lead changes Mars Hill took the lead for good at the 4:17 mark after Atkins nailed two foul shots. Mars Hill then went on a 10-to-4 run over the next three minutes to lead by seven points (78-71) and seal the win.

The game saw 13 lead changes and 11 ties. Mars Hill came out of the gate ready to play and never let down. The team shot 56.3% (27-48) from the floor and a phenomenal 61.9% (13-21) from the floor in the first half. Tusculum converted on 41.8% of their shots from the field and was 0-7 from behind the arc. The two teams combined for 38 turnovers in the contest.

The remaining bracket shapes up with #3 Lenoir-Rhyne College meeting #2 Carson-Newman College at 6:00 p.m. L-R defeated #6 Presbyterian College 96-87 in overtime while Carson-Newman knocked off #7 Wingate University, 84-74. The Championship game will be played on Sunday at 2:00 p.m.

Lady Eagles Advance to SAC Semifinals with 84-74 Win over Bulldogs

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn.- Andrea Fitzgerald (Memphis, Tenn.) scored 26 points to lead the Carson-Newman Lady Eagles to an 84-74 win over the visiting Wingate Bulldogs in the first round of the Food Lion South Atlantic Conference (SAC) basketball tournament Wednesday night.

With the win, the Lady Eagles advance to the semi-finals of the SAC tournament to face Lenoir-Rhyne on Saturday at 6 p.m. in Hickory, N.C. The Lady Eagles, the number two seed in the tournament and 10th-ranked team in the region, improves to 16-12. Wingate ends their season at 18-10.

The Lady Eagles blew open a close game late in the second half. With the score tied at 63-63 with 5:20 remaining, the Lady Eagles reeled off 12 straight points, eight of which were scored by Fitzgerald. The Lady Eagles hit 13 free throws in the final two minutes of the contest to seal the win. Both teams shot 37 free throws on the night.

C-N, who trailed 32-31 at the half, outscored the Bulldogs 53-42 in the final 20 minutes of the game. The Lady Eagles shot 15-25 (60%) in the second half while holding the Bulldogs to only 14-of-32 (44%).

In addition to Fitzgerald’s 26 points, Tiffany Parker (Newnan, Ga.) and Monica Ashburn (Clarkrange, Tenn.) each scored 15 points. Parker added 10 rebounds and Brandi Long (Clinton, Tenn.) had 10 assists.

Wingate was led in scoring by Veronica Taylor (Columbia, S.C.) who had 24 points. Ginny Boggess (Hamlin, W.Va.) scored 17 points and Cathy Crutchfield (Concord, N.C.) added 10 points.