Dec. 9, 2001

Final Stats

Radford, Va. - Laura Echols scored a career-high 33 points, while Tiffany Hamm scored 15 and tied a career-high with 15 rebounds, to lead Western Carolina to an 83-66 victory at Radford Sunday afternoon at the Dedmon Center.

Radford (2-6) had four players score double-figures, but only shot 35.4 percent from the floor, while Western (7-2) shot a season-high 53.2 percent from the field and won the battle of the boards, 45-37.

Like she did versus Gardner-Webb, Echols poured in 23 second-half points to break open an eight-point (34-26) Catamount halftime lead. Overall, the Conyers, Ga., native was 15-of-23 from the floor and pulled down seven rebounds.

Hamm, who scored in double figures for the eighth time in nine games, had five offensive rebounds and 10 on the defensive end for her first double-double of the season. (Last season, Hamm scored 17 points and had 15 rebounds at Davidson.) Freshman Melissa Ervin, seeing extended playing time for an injured Yoneko Allen, had four assists and zero turnovers, playing a season-high 25 minutes versus Radford.

The Highlanders came out strong in the first half, jumping out to a 10-2 lead on back-to-back threes by Ludmila Nicheporchuk and Kylie Williamson. The Catamounts would claw their way back into it with a 9-2 run, giving them a 13-12 lead at 9:51. With the game tied at 21, WCU closed out the half with a 13-5 run to give them a 34-26 advantage at the half.

Radford would start to cut into the lead and at the 13:38 mark they would get it down to three. That would be as close as RU would get the rest of the way, as the Highlander cut it to four on three straight possessions, but a 9-0 run after the last possession built the WCU lead back to 13. The margin would stay double-digits the rest of the way.

Nicheporchuk led the Highlanders in scoring for the second consecutive game with 17 points. Williamson, Sherri Rickman and Amanda Neby also reached double figures for the Highlanders with 10, 12 and 15 respectively.

Western will have a 10-day layoff for exams before returning to action on Dec. 19 (Wednesday). At that time, the Catamounts will open their Southern Conference home schedule versus Davidson. Game time is set for 7 p.m., at the RAC.