Dec. 20, 2002

Final Stats

Cullowhee, N.C. - The Western Carolina women's basketball team steamrolled past the Campbell Camels with a second half surge to win 67-55 in the Ramsey Center Friday night. The win gives the Catamounts a 7-2 overall record heading into Southern Conference play. Campbell drops to 1-5 with the loss.

"We were scrappy and we gave a good effort," said WCU head coach Beth Dunkenberger. "Our pressure defense created good offense for us. We shot the ball well because we passed it around. When you have 18 assists in a game, you've played well together."

The Camels only led twice in the game. Kristal Troy hit a 3-pointer to start the game and Amber Graham sank a jumper at 9:44 to put Campbell up 10-9, which would be their last lead of the game. Jennifer Gardner scored one of her three field goals of the half to give the Cats a 29-20 lead going into halftime.

In the second period, Campbell came out firing. The Camels opened the half with a 8-1 run to close Western's lead to two at 30-28 with 17:52 on the clock. However, the Lady Catamounts orchestrated a run of their own. Tiffany Hamm sank one from 3-point range to complete a 14-2 run in just over five minutes. The biggest lead of the game for Western came on another layup by Gardner to put the Cats up by 24 with 3:38 left in the game. Campbell fought back, bringing the score to 65-53 on a layup by Kendra Damman, but it was not enough as Western Carolina held on to win the game by a 12-point margin at 67-55.

Yoneko Allen led WCU with 17 points on the night, including a season-high five 3-pointers, which also ties her career-high. She now has 68 career 3-pointers, good for sixth place on WCU's all-time list. Gardner and Hamm also scored in double figures with 14 and 13 points, respectively, and each led the team in rebounds with six apiece. Western Carolina was able to take advantage of its depth in the game as 10 players were in the game for 13 minutes or more. The team also shot a season-high 53.1 percent from the field (26-49) and 46.7 percent from 3-point range (7-15).

Campbell was led by Troy with 18 points and six rebounds. Dasha Green had a team-high seven rebounds, while Terra Guandolo led with four steals. The Camels shot 35.7 percent from the field and 78.6 percent from the free throw line.

Western Carolina takes a break for the holidays before heading into its conference schedule. They open their SoCon play on the road at Davidson Dec. 30 at 7:00 pm.

"Our non-conference schedule is supposed to get us ready for our conference games and I think we've done a good job in the last nine games in preparing for the road ahead," Dunkenberger said. "Now we'll have to see how well we match up against the SoCon schools. We have a tough test on the road to start at Davidson."