Feb. 11, 2004

Final Stats

Boone, N.C. - Western Carolina's women's basketball team came back from a three-point halftime deficit to outscore Appalachian State 42-24 in the second period for the 80-65 win Wednesday evening at the Holmes Center. The victory marked the sixth straight for Western over its arch rival as the Catamounts upped their record to 8-14 overall and 7-8 in Southern Conference action. ASU fell to 5-17 on the season and 4-11 in SoCon.

Appalachian made six-of-seven shots early on to take a 15-6 advantage just over six minutes into the contest. From there, the Catamounts went on an 18-7 run to start a back-and-forth battle which saw the game tied six times and the lead change five times throughout the first half before the Mountaineers took a 41-38 lead into the locker room.

ASU held on to the lead for the first eight-plus minutes of the second stanza, extending the advantage to as many as six points on three occasions.

However, Western Carolina took control with an 18-2 run midway through the period that gave it a 64-54 lead with 7:26 remaining.

Appalachian answered with a 7-0 run of its own to cut the deficit to three with 5:29 to go, but that would be as close as it got, as WCU sealed the victory by outscoring ASU 16-4 the rest of the way.

Despite outrebounding the Catamounts 40-34, Appalachian held just a 28-26 advantage in the paint and were outscored 16-8 on second chances. The Mountaineers also did not do a good job of taking care of the ball, as 20 ASU turnovers led to 21 Western points, while the Cats coughed the ball up a season-low 11 times after averaging 25 in the team's last two games. Also factoring into Western's win was the fact that the Catamounts shot a season-high 61.5 percent from 3-point range (8-of-13) and hit 14-of-16 free throws (87.5 percent).

WCU's Tiffany Hamm raised her league-leading scoring average with a game-high 23 points, moving her into seventh on Western's all-time scoring list with 1,306 career points. She additionally led all rebounders with nine boards. Also chipping in double figures were Yoneko Allen with 14, 12 apiece from Jennifer Gardner and Lori Tanner and 10 points from Sigita Maleraite. Ki-Ki Glass led the field with six assists and no turnovers.

Aisha Bryant and Lindsay Smith led the Mountaineers with 16 points apiece, while Jessica Jank chipped in with 10. Jaime Bennett registered team highs with eight rebounds and a career-high four assists.

Western Carolina returns to Cullowhee where the Cats will play four of their final five regular-season games, starting off with UNC Greensboro at 4:00 pm on Saturday. Appalachian will return to action when it hosts East Tennessee State also on Saturday. Tip-off has been moved to 2:00 pm Saturday from its originally scheduled start time of 1:00.