Jan. 8, 2007

Final Stats |   

Cullowhee, N.C. - Using a 12-0 run to open the game, Western Carolina led wire-to-wire in winning its fourth-straight over its mountain rival Appalachian State, 71-60, Monday night in Southern Conference action in the Ramsey Center. Four Lady Catamounts reached double-figures in scoring and three tallied double-digit rebounding nights as WCU matched its win total from a year ago, moving to 9-7 overall, 3-2 in the SoCon.

Junior guard Monique Dawson led the Lady Catamounts with 17 points, seven rebounds and a career-high six steals. The Charlotte, N.C., native also dished out three assists and was a perfect 9-for-9 from the free throw line. Sophomore transfer Brooke Johnson posted her second double-double as a Lady Catamount, scoring 16 off the bench, added 10 rebounds and tied her WCU career-best with four blocked shots.

Rounding out Western's double-digit scorers were sophomore Lauren Powell with 14, including WCU's lone 3-pointer of the night, and 13 from junior Chevon Keith who added three assists and a pair of steals. Keith also became the 20th Lady Catamount all-time to record 500 rebounds in a career, tallying four on the night to move to 503 over her three-year career. She is now 25 rebounds shy of moving up to 19th on the chart.

Both sophomore Kendra Eaton and freshman Kristen Feemster came off the bench to add rebounding help for the Lady Catamounts, who held a commanding 54-to-42 edge on the glass. The two each boarded a season-high with 10 to tie Johnson for the team lead. Feemster, seeing her first action in three games, had an immediate impact, grabbing a defensive board less than a minute after she subbed into the game en route to her career-high. Nine of Eaton's 10 rebounds were on the offensive end, and despite not recording a field goal, the Winston-Salem, N.C., product scored five points from the free throw line.

After securing the opening tip from junior Jessika Johnson, Keith raced right to the basket from the left side and made a lay-up six seconds into the contest, sparking a 12-0 run as the Lady Catamounts held the Mountaineers scoreless for the game's first six and a half minutes. During WCU's spurt, Appalachian went 0-for-8 from the floor, 0-for-2 from the free throw line and committed seven turnovers. The Mountaineers recovered, though, with a 16-6 run of its own to slice the deficit to two, 18-16, with 6:17 remaining before halftime. However, a pair of Dawson free throws and a fast break lay-up by Brooke Johnson pushed Western back out in front by six, 22-16. ASU would close to within four points before intermission, but six unanswered points by WCU pushed the lead back to 10 and stood at five, 30-25, at the break.

Appalachian State made its first of two legitimate second half pushes within the first minute and a half of the second half, outscoring Western 5-to-2 to pull to within a pair, 32-30, at the 18:52 mark. Western retaliated with an 8-0 spurt, including an old-fashioned 3-point play by Dawson, a pair of Keith free throws and Powell's trifecta, to again lead by 10, 40-30. Five quick points the other way for the Apps closed the gap back to five, 43-38, at the 14:27 mark, but that was as close as the Mountaineers would get the remainder of the game.

The lead fluctuated between five and 10 points over the next seven minutes before matching a game-high 12 three times over the final seven minutes as WCU was nearly perfect from the free throw line. The Lady Cats shot 81.1-percent (30-of-37) from the stripe for the game, the second-best performance of the season on the second-most single-game attempts (37).

The game was marred with inconsistency as the two squads combined for 50 turnovers (25 apiece), 52 team fouls (26 apiece) and 69 free throw attempts (18-of-32 for ASU, 30-of-37 for WCU).

Appalachian State (8-8, 2-3 SoCon) was led by 18 points from junior transfer Maria Grimes, who connected on 3-of-9 from 3-point range and just 3-of-8 from the charity stripe. Sophomore Whitney Ketner scored six of her 10 points from the free throw line with a perfect 6-for-6 outing. Junior Shante Williams led the Apps on the boards with a career-high 11 boards in the losing effort. Saddled with early foul trouble, ASU's leading scorer, junior Whitney Tossie, was held to five points which is 12 points below her seasonal average entering the game.

After playing back-to-back home games, the Lady Catamounts hit the road for three SoCon games beginning this Saturday afternoon in Chattanooga against the defending champion Lady Mocs. The start time this Saturday has been moved up to 3:00 pm at the McKenzie Arena to accommodate a television broadcast of the game in the Chattanooga viewing area. Western will also visit Georgia Southern (Jan. 15) and Furman (Jan. 20) during the road swing.

Saturday's game at Chattanooga will be broadcast by the Catamount Sports Network and can be heard in Western North Carolina on WWCU-FM, Power 90dot5 in Cullowhee or online at www.WWCUFM.com or www.CatamountSports.com.