Box Score March 3, 2006
Final Stats
Charleston, S.C. -
Every Lady Catamount scored at least three points with three reaching double-figures as fourth seeded Western Carolina scored the quarterfinal victory over No. 5 Appalachian State, 80-71, Friday afternoon at the McAlister Field House in the 2006 Southern Conference Women's Basketball Championship.
The win was Western's third over the Mountaineers this season and advances the Lady Catamounts into Saturday's semifinals where they will meet top-seeded Chattanooga, who defeated #9 Furman 70-51 on Friday. WCU (9-19) will play at 6:00 pm on Saturday night at the North Charleston Coliseum.
"I am very proud of my team," said second-year head coach Kellie Harper who remained undefeated as either a head or assistant coach in the SoCon Tournament (14-0 all-time, 5-0 at WCU). "Down the stretch out players remained poised and showed confidence, which was certainly a key to victory today. Also, our free throw shooting was big today. We had traditionally poor free throw shooters step up. We feel like we can be a good free throw shooting team and today we were."
Freshman Teshymia Tillman led the way for Western for the second-consecutive game, scoring 14 on 4-of-9 shooting including tying a career-high with two, 3-pointers. Sophomore Monique Dawson finished with a dozen, including eight from the free throw line, while classmate Jessika Johnson just missed a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds, adding two blocked shots and a pair of steals.
Two additional Lady Catamounts just missed double-figure scoring as sophomore Ashley Pellom and freshman Amelia Miller each delivered eight.
Appalachian State led the majority of the first half, racing out to a six-point, 10-4 lead three minutes into the game. Western clawed back to cut the deficit to two, 13-11, but the Mountaineers ballooned their advantage back out to eight, 21-13 at the 10:53 mark.
Down six, 23-17, the Lady Catamounts embarked on a 12-2 run to take both their first and largest lead of the game, going up 29-25 with just under five minutes remaining before the half. The ebb and flow of the game seesawed back-and-forth over the closing moments of the half, with consensus SoCon Freshman of the Year, WCU's Lauren Powell, draining her first trey of the game to send the Western into the locker room with the three-point, 37-34, lead.
Out of intermission, the Mountaineers scored four quick points to erase the halftime deficit and grab a one-point, 38-37 lead. ASU would lead by three, 42-39, before Western used a 17-to-4 run over a nine-minute span to take its largest lead of the contest at 10 points, 56-46, with 10 minutes to play in regulation. But the Apps would not go away, whittling the Western lead back inside of double-digits and eventually pulling to within one, 68-67, with 2:08 showing on the game clock. Tillman answered on the other end, however, draining her second trifecta to extend the lead back to four, 71-67.
ASU's Whitney Tossie tried to keep the `neers in the game, following Tillman's 3 with a lay-up in the lane, but after a missed trey by Eboni Kirby and an Amelia Miller rebound, App State was forced into the foul game down the stretch. Western connected on 9-of-10 opportunities from the charity stripe inside the final minute to ice the victory from the free throw line.
For the game, Western shot 83.3-percent from the free throw line, including a sizzling 90-percent (18-of-20) in the second half alone. The Lady Catamounts also outrebounded Appalachian State, 42-to-40 in the win.
"We put Western on the free throw line way too many times. On the other end, we were settling for jumpers and not taking the ball to the basket," said Mountaineer head coach, Adrienne Shuler, who fell to 3-6 all-time versus the Lady Catamounts.
Appalachian State (15-13) has four players reach double-digits as seniors KiKi Conyers and Jocelyn Wyatt combined for 18 and 17, respectively. Sophomore Whitney Tossie added 11 with her classmate, Whitney Tossie, scoring 10. Junior Danielle Edwards led the Mountaineers with nine rebounds.
Saturday's semifinal game will be broadcast by the Catamount Sports Network and can be heard locally in Cullowhee on WWCU-FM, Power 90dot5 (www.WWCUFM.com) or in the Asheville area on 1350 AM WZGM (www.FXSports.com). Daniel Hooker and Steven Crumpler will have the call with a 5:45 pm air time from the North Charleston Coliseum.
