Weekly SAC Women’s Basketball Notes - February 19, 2007

CARSON-NEWMAN - Did not report

CATAWBA - The Catawba women took hold of second place in the SAC with three wins last week ... The ladies won a double-overtime game 92-86 at Mars Hill on Monday, got a last-second jumper by Brittany Higgins in a 74-72 win over Lincoln Memorial on Wednesday and held off Lenoir-Rhyne for a 58-54 win on Saturday ... The wins upped the Lady Indian winning streak to five games, which includes an overtime win, a double overtime win, a two-point win, a three-point win and a four-point win ... Catawba rallied back from a three-point deficit in regulation at Mars Hill, but Abby DeBusk forced an extra session with eight seconds left ... Mars Hill led by five with 39 seconds left in overtime, but the Catawba rallied and tied the game on a three-pointer at the buzzer by Hillary Hampton, the only three by the Lady Indians on the night ... Catawba took control early in the second overtime and hit 5-of-6 free throws in the final 1:22 to secure the win ... Corin Muldrow scored a career-high 23 points in the win over MH, while Hampton added 16 points and Higgins 15 ... Catawba shot just 31 percent in the opening half, but finished the game at 49 percent ... The game with Lincoln Memorial came down to the win after Catawba led by seven with two minutes left ... The Lady Railsplitters fought back to tie the game on Madeline Richards' three-pointer with eight seconds left, but Higgins sank a 15-footer with one second left to give Catawba the win ... Hampton led the way with 18 points, while NeKeithia Howard added 10 points ... Catawba shot 52 percent in the win and canned 67 percent in the second half ... Catawba also enjoyed a 30-23 edge on the boards ... The Lady Indians jumped out to a 24-9 lead at LR, but suffered through a seven minute scoring drought and saw the Bears close within 26-25 ... LR would tie the game at 32-32, but Catawba answered with an 8-0 run to grab control ... The ladies stayed in front by five until the final seconds when LR cut the deficit to 57-54 with seven seconds left ... Higgins hit a free throw with four seconds to go to ice the issue ... Howard led Catawba with 14 points, while Sicilia LoSauro added 10 ... Howard upped her team-leading scoring average to 10 points with four other Lady Indians added over seven points a game ... Howard, Muldrow and Tamekia Foster each pull down just over five rebounds a contest ... Catawba heads to Carson-Newman on Wednesday and will close out the regular season on Saturday when it hosts Presbyterian.

LENOIR-RHYNE - The Lenoir-Rhyne women's basketball team (15-10, 8-6) dropped both pair of league contests at home last week … Lenoir-Rhyne was on the losing end to Lincoln Memorial (80-66) Monday and Catawba (58-54) on Saturday … Although Lenoir-Rhyne is 5-3 on the road against league opponents, the Bears are just 3-4 at Shuford Gymnasium against SAC competition … LMU had five players scored in double figures and hit 27-of-30 (90 percent) free throws and prevailed despite a career-high 21 points from freshman guard Jami Safrit (Hickory, N.C.) … Lenoir-Rhyne shot just 35 percent (21-of-60) from the field against Catawba and lost the season series versus the Indians for the first time since the 2002-03 season … Sophomore forward Denise Moore (Newport News, Va.) led all scorers with 20 points despite the setback … Lenoir-Rhyne was able to overcome a 15-points, first-half deficit (24-9) to tie the contest at 32 early in the second half but could not take the lead … Catawba promptly scored the next eight points to take control again … Lenoir-Rhyne travels to Wingate, N.C., to face Wingate University Wednesday at 6 p.m., before hosting Mars Hill on Senior Night Saturday at 6 p.m., in the regular season finale … L-R defeated both squads earlier in the year.

LINCOLN MEMORIAL - The Lady Railsplitters seemed to do no wrong in Monday night's 80-66 South Atlantic Conference road win over Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory, North Carolina. "It was probably our best forty consecutive minutes of the year," said LMU Head Coach Roger Vannoy ... LMU looked dominating at times against the second ranked team in the conference by shooting 52.3 percent from the floor, 75 percent from three-point range, and a blistering 90 percent from the free throw line on 27-29 shooting ... The Lady Railsplitters also displayed their dominance on the boards, out rebounding the Lady Bears 40 to 24 ... Defensively Lincoln Memorial held Lenoir-Rhyne to only 2-16 shooting from the perimeter while holding the Lady Bears to 39.3 percent from the field ... The free throw line didn't help Lenoir-Rhyne make up any ground either, as the Lady Bears only hit 20-30 from the stripe for 66.7 percent ... Despite finishing 4-12 from the field, LMU junior Heather Benton led all scorers with 17 points while pulling 10 rebounds. Benton was 9-10 from the line to help the Lady Railsplitter cause while freshman Andi Winney turned in a 14 point performance and senior Latoya Johnson recorded a double-double of 14 points and 10 rebounds. Also in double figures were seniors Madeline Richards and Betsy Bowser. Both players scored 12 points each, Bowser was a perfect 4-4 from the field ... The Lady Railsplitter basketball team fell short in their attempt to give Coach Roger Vannoy a final win on the road as Catawba's Brittany Higgins hit a 12 foot jumper to give the host Lady Indians the 74-72 win on Wednesday. The game was a see-saw affair, with neither team able to grab a lead for long. LMU led 32-26 at the halftime break ... Catawba led 72-65 after a layup by Ne'Keithia Howard with 2:01 to play. Shots from Madeline Richards and Heather Benton hit jumpers to pull LMU within 72-69 with less than 30 seconds to go. Richards took the ball down the court and used a screen to get open and drained a three-pointer with eight seconds to go to tie the game at 72-72 ... Catawba then took the ball down the court and Gia Colombo found Higgins coming off a screen and got her the ball for the game winning basket ... LMU (12-13, 4-10 SAC) was led by Richards and Latoya Johnson with 15 points each. Benton also scored 11 points in the loss ... Hillary Hampton led Catawba (19-6, 9-4 SAC) with 18 points and Howard scored 10 ... Catawba shot just 39 percent in the first half, but canned 67 percent in the second half, including going 4-for-5 from behind the arc ... LMU shot 59 percent in the second half and was a school record 10-for-16 for three-point range for the game. Catawba held a 30-23 edge on the boards ... The Lincoln Memorial University Lady Railsplitters battled back from 12 points down in the first half, including a 7 point halftime deficit Saturday night to defeat the Lady Eagles of Carson-Newman College 75-61 in South Atlantic Conference play ... LMU took its first lead of the game with 9:07 remaining in the contest on a three pointer by Betsy Bowser and extended the lead to 15 before finally coming away with the win ... Free throw shooting proved to be huge factor in the winning effort, as LMU got to the line sixteen times in the second half, knocking down fourteen of those shots and shooting 76.9 percent from the line for the game ... Another contributing factor in the win was turnovers. LMU limited their turnovers to only 13 on the night while forcing 21 Lady Eagle turnovers in forty minutes of play ... LMU guard Madeline Richards was 12 of 14 at the line and led the Lady Railsplitter comeback with 24 points while center Latoya Johnson continued the assault she has been on of South Atlantic Conference opponents for the past several games with 14 points. Junior forward Heather Benton added another 12 points for the Lady Railsplitters and freshman Andi Winney led LMU on the glass with 11 boards ... Carson-Newman got 12 point performances from Cassie Burks and Lindsey Eggleston while Shari Buford put in another 10 in the Lady Eagles' seventh loss of the season and their sixth loss in South Atlantic Conference play ... The Lady Railsplitters are now 13-13 overall with a conference record of 5-10 as they have a week to prepare for their final regular season home game next Saturday night with Newberry College (19-6, 8-6 SAC). The night will also mark the final home game for LMU Head Coach Roger Vannoy who will be retiring at the end of the season. Tip-off is set for 6:00 p.m. in the Turner Arena.

MARS HILL - MHC lost two games last week. MHC fell to 14-10 overall and 7-7 in the SAC. In the first game of the week, the Lions' women's basketball team lost to Catawba College Monday night in double overtime in Stanford Arena ... Catawba held a nine point lead in the first half at the 10:30 mark after Cameron Clark (Albemarle, NC) hit a jumper. MHC then went on a 21-to-11 run to take a one point lead (26-25) into the locker room at halftime. Catawba came out of the locker room and out scored MHC 19-to-11 to go up seven (44-37) with 12:11 left in regulation after Tamekia Foster (Chesapeake, VA) hit a layup. Once again the Lions climbed back into the contest going on a 9-to-1 run to take a 46-45 lead with 9:14 on the clock when Abby DeBusk (New Tazewell, TN) hit a shot in the lane ... The game would see five ties and two lead changes in what was left of the second frame. MHC led by three points (61-58) with 1:51 left in the contest after Lindsay Roberts hit a layup. A layup by Corin Muldrow (Jacksonville, NC) and two foul shots by Brittany Higgins (Takoma Park, MD) gave Catawba a 62-61 advantage with 32 ticks on the clock ... A missed layup by DeBusk and a MHC foul put Ingrid Easter (Cana, VA) on the foul line for two shots but she was able to convert only the last one with 13 seconds left in second half. Five seconds later DeBusk scored inside for MHC and sent the contest into the first overtime period ... Catawba scored five unanswered points in the first overtime period before MHC answered in the same manner knotting the contest at 68-all with 1:40 on the clock. A missed Catawba shot, turnover and foul led to five more consecutive points for the Lions as they led 75-70 with 39 seconds left. Hillary Hampton (Salisbury, NC) made a layup at the 32 second mark and then after two missed free throws by the Lions, Gia Colombo (Concord, NH) brought Catawba within one point (75-74) with 16 seconds remaining ... DeBusk was fouled and hit 1-of-2 free throws and then a turnover by Catawba gave the Lions the ball with eight seconds left in overtime. Lindsay Roberts was fouled and also made only 1-of-2 foul shots but forced Catawba to have to make a 3-pointer. Unfortunately for MHC they did. As the buzzer sounded Hampton banked in a desperation 3-pointer to send the contest into the second extra period ... Catawba outscored MHC 15-to-9 in the final stanza to leave Stanford Arena with the win. Muldrow gave Catawba the lead for good at the 1:59 mark scoring inside ... Catawba shot 64.7 percent (11-17) from the field in the two overtime periods. Muldrow finished with 23 points and seven rebounds followed by Hampton with 16 and Higgins with 15 ... Catawba scored 62 points in the paint and received 45 points from their bench ... DeBusk led all scorers with 24 points to pace the Lions. She added 10 boards to record a double-double. Jessica Blanford (Concord, NC) added 21 points and eight rebounds while Lindsay Roberts scored 12 points in the game. She had a great game defensively blocking her career high seven shots and pulling down eight rebounds ... MHC won the rebound battle, 45-to-43. The game saw 12 ties and 16 lead changes ... In the second game of the week, The Lions' women's basketball team lost to Wingate University Wednesday night in Stanford Arena, 85-77. Wingate placed five players in double-figures in scoring in the contest ... The first half was closely played with neither team enjoying more than a six point lead. After three ties and nine lead changes in the first frame, Wingate took a 41-38 lead into the locker room at halftime after Anna Atkinson (Marion, NC) hit a layup with eight seconds on the clock ... The Bulldogs out scored MHC 10-to-5 to start the second half and lead by eight (51-43) with 16:03 left in the contest after Atkinson hit a 3-pointer. MHC battled back and tied the contest at 70-all with 4:43 left in regulation after Allison Schafer (Advance, NC) hit a shot from behind the arc. Wingate answered the Lions' run by scoring 10 unanswered points to go ahead 80-70 with 1:22 on the clock when Petra Nagy (Budapest, Hungary) hit a 3-pointer. MHC was forced to foul and Wingate sealed the win at the foul line in the final 80 seconds of play ... Wingate scored 42 points in the paint while MHC scored 13 second chance points. The Lions won the rebound battle, 36-to-30 ... Atkinson led Wingate with 18 points followed by Tanetra Barrett (Marshville, NC) with 17. Emily Paffrath (Bakersville, NC) and Kerri Metzker (Charlotte, NC) scored 16 points apiece. Nagy came off the bench to add 10. Metzker was the rebound leader with seven ... Schafer led MHC with 23 points and five rebounds. Abby DeBusk (New Tazewell, TN) rounded out the double-figure scorers for MHC with 21 ... Saturday was the last scheduled home game for MHC so the Lions recognized their two senior players, DeBusk and Laura Snider (Old Fort, NC) ... MHC will play at Tusculum College on Wednesday night at 6 p.m. and then travel to Lenoir-Rhyne College on Saturday night, also at 6 p.m.

NEWBERRY - Newberry College fell twice during the past week, dropping to 8-6 in SAC action and 19-6 overall … The Lady Indians faced Tusculum College at home on February 14 … Tied 29-29 at the half, Tusculum (13-12, 5-9) jumped out to a four point edge to start the second on Shantae Shank's lay-up at the 17:15 mark … With the score 37-33, neither team could find the bottom of the net for nearly three minutes … Finally a Cicely Jenkins jumper fell for Newberry and cut the Pioneer lead in half … The Lady Indians took their first lead of the second half, 41-39, with 12:48 remaining after sophomore Laura Marquardt connected for a deuce … Newberry was able to hold that lead until the 8:39 mark when Tusculum turned the tide with consecutive three-point shots … Diana Neves drained the first to tie the game at 47-47 and Brooke Underwood hit the second to give Tusculum the lead for good with 7:48 left … For the game, Tusculum shot 52.6 percent from behind the three-point line, knocking down 10-of-19 attempts … Despite the loss, Newberry received a resurgent performance from junior forward and leading scorer Tonique Frasier … The Walterboro native exploded for a career-high 28 points on 12-of-27 shooting from the floor … The new career mark comes on the heels of a season-low eight point outing against Catawba on February 10 … Frasier also dominated the glass with 17 rebounds, 11 of the offensive variety … Junior guard Ashlee Wright had 16 points on 8-of-17 shooting along with five rebounds and three assists in 34 minutes … For Tusculum, Ashli Oliver 17 points on 5-of-11 shooting including five three-pointers. Lindsay Barta had 10 points and seven rebounds …Newberry College hits the road this Saturday for a 2 p.m. start in Wingate, N.C. against Wingate University … Newberry College women's basketball lost in conference action to SAC leader Wingate University, 72-59, on February 17 at Cuddy Arena … Wingate (20-5 overall, 12-2 SAC) wins 20 games for the 20th season. Newberry (19-6 overall, 8-6 SAC) was led by junior guard Ashlee Wright and her 19 points … The Myrtle Beach native hit 7-of-14 shots from the floor in 38 minutes of play. Wright also grabbed five rebounds and dished out four assists … Senior forward Tygress Hope also got into the scoring act with a season-best 11 points and career-high 13 rebounds and 34 minutes played … Junior Tonque Frasier had 13 points and eight rebounds in 33 minutes … Newberry jumped out to an 11-5 lead in the first 4:36 of the game, but Wingate took the lead at 13:14 and never looked back … The Lady Indians host rival Presbyterian College this coming Wednesday, February 21, in Eleazer Arena with tip-off scheduled for 6 p.m.

PRESBYTERIAN - Presbyterian concluded last week 0-3 on the week … The Lady Blue Hose lost their first game of the week to Wingate last Monday, 74-63 … Morgan Johnson led the Lady Blue Hose in the loss, finishing with 10 points and 10 rebounds … The double-double was the 11th of the season for Johnson … Jessica Parris had the best game of her career in PC's 73-71 overtime loss to Carson-Newman last Wednesday, tallying a career-high 20 points … Freshman Lea Smith finished her efforts in Saturday's 62-61 loss to Tusculum with a career-best 18 points.

TUSCULUM - The Tusculum College women's basketball team went 2-1 last week. TC opened the week with a 71-70 home loss to No. 22 Carson-Newman. The Pioneers (14-12, 6-9 SAC) rebounded with road wins at Newberry (62-55) and Presbyterian (62-61) ... Tusculum will wrap up the regular season on Wednesday as they host cross-mountain rival Mars Hill ... Ashli Oliver and Chassity Martin continue their three-point chase. Oliver currently holds the all-time record at Tusculum with 169 three-point field goals (6th in SAC history). Martin has made 152 in her four seasons at TC, second behind Oliver and eighth in the league record books. Oliver has established a new school single-season with 85 three-point field goals this year, breaking the mark she set last year (84). Oliver is closing in on the SAC single-season record for three-point field goals. She is four off the SAC best 89 set by Vaida Turauskaite of Gardner-Webb in the 1997-98 season ... Oliver is averaging 19.3 points per game in her last eight outings. During that span, she is averaging 5.5 three-point field goals per game and is shooting 44-102 (43.1 percent) from beyond the arc ... Chassity Martin is closing in on a personal milestone as she needs one point (999) to reach the 1,000-point plateau in her career. She is looking to become the 11th player in recorded school history to score 1,000 points in career ... Brooke Underwood is third in the nation in assists per game, dishing out 7.57 apg. She has 197 helpers this year, fourth most in school history and seventh best in a SAC season. Brooke Underwood has recorded double-digit assists 20 times during her career. Tusculum is 16-4 when Underwood dishes out at least 10 assists. Tusculum is 13-5 this season when recording at least seven 3-pointers ... It will be the final home game for Tusculum seniors Brooke Underwood and Chassity Martin. Both seniors earned All-SAC Second Team honors last season.

WINGATE - The Wingate University women's basketball team won three games last week. With the three victories, the Bulldogs (20-5 overall, 12-2 SAC) clinch at least a tie for the SAC regular season championship. Since the SAC became an all-sports league in 1989, Wingate has won or shared the regular season title in 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005 and 2006 ... Bulldog senior guard Tanetra Barrett led all scorers with 21 points as the Bulldogs celebrated senior day with a 72-59 South Atlantic Conference victory over Newberry College Saturday in Cuddy Arena. Wingate wins 20 games for the 20th season under the watchful eye of head coach Johnny Jacumin. The veteran mentor is retiring at the end of the season ... Barrett averaged 19.7 points per game in Wingate's three wins last week. During the three-game span, she averaged 19.7 points per game, 4.0 rebounds per game and 4.3 assists per game. She hit 50.0 percent of her field goals (15-of-30). On the season, Barrett leads the Bulldogs (and the SAC) with 18.1 points per game. In addition, she averages 6.1 rebounds per game and 4.0 assists per game ... Wingate sophomore point guard Anna Atkinson tallied a season-high 18 points to lead five players in double figures as the Bulldogs defeated Mars Hill 85-77 Wednesday night
In the second half, Wingate shot 68.4 percent from the floor (13-for-19) as the Bulldogs stretched a 41-38 halftime lead into an eight-point victory ... Barrett scored 17 points in the road win over the Lions. Senior post players Emily Paffrath and Kerri Metzker contributed 16 points each, while senior guard Petra Nagy chipped in 10 points off the Wingate bench. Paffrath and Metzker were a big reason Wingate outscored Mars Hill 42-26 in the paint Wednesday night ... Barrett had 21 points, six assists, four rebounds and two steals to lead Wingate to a 74-63 SAC women's basketball victory over Presbyterian College Monday night in the Templeton Center. Paffrath added 18 points, four rebounds and three blocked shots for the first-place Bulldogs ... Wingate is third in the latest NCAA Division II South Atlantic Regional poll (released Feb. 14). Newberry (sixth) and Catawba (eighth) also represent the SAC in the regional listing ... In last week's NCAA Division II statistics, Paffrath is 16th with 2.4 blocked shots per game (entering the week). Paffrath is the all-time Wingate and SAC leader in career blocked shots with 320. As a team, the Bulldogs rank 16th in the NCAA Division II with 4.5 blocked shots per game ... Atkinson is 20th in the nation in assists, dishing out 5.3 helpers per contest (entering the week). Junior guard Kate Edwards is 32nd in three-point field goal percentage, hitting 40.4 percent of her triples this season. Edwards leads Wingate with 40 trifectas. Barrett is 38th in the NCAA Division II in scoring with her 18.1 points per game average. Barrett is the leading scorer in the South Atlantic Conference ... Coach Jacumin is fourth on the NCAA Division II winningest active coaches victory list. The dean of SAC coaches in terms of wins and longevity, Jacumin has 588 victories (entering Wednesday's home game with Lenoir-Rhyne) ... Jacumin's .729 winning percentage (entering the season) ranks 15th among active NCAA Division II coaches. Wingate won the Food Lion South Atlantic Conference tournament in 1991, 1992, 1994, 1996 and 1997.