March 3, 2007

Final Stats

North Charleston, S.C. - Sophomore Lauren Powell drained her third 3-pointer of the game at the 5:45 mark of the second half to pull top-seeded Western Carolina even with Chattanooga at 62-62. However, sparked by back-to-back treys, the second-seeded Lady Mocs outscored the Lady Catamounts 22-to-4 the remainder of the game, stretching the lead late from the free throw line en route to an 84-66 win in the 2007 Southern Conference Women's Basketball Championship at the North Charleston Coliseum.

The tournament title was the 11th all-time for UTC and gives the Lady Mocs the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Western, which won a school-record 23 games thus far this season, will garner the automatic bid to the Women's National Invitational Tournament (WNIT), with pairings to be announced on Monday, March 12 following the NCAA's selection show.

Western dropped to 0-8 all-time versus Chattanooga in the SoCon post-season event.

"Congratulations to Chattanooga. They played a good game, executed well and played solid defense," said WCU head coach Kellie Harper, who was voted the SoCon's Coach of the Year by both the media and coaches. "This was not one of our better games and some of our girls did not perform as well as they usually do. For us, winning two games during the regular season, you never want to change a winning game play. Chattanooga was able to adjust what they had done the last two times we played and they came out ready."

Western Carolina landed three players on the all-tournament team as sophomore Brooke Johnson and junior Chevon Keith each earned first-team honors with junior Ashley Pellom named to the second team. Johnson averaged 14.7 points per game to lead the Lady Catamounts in scoring, adding six rebounds per game and eight blocks, while Keith averaged a double-double in the three games with 10 points and 11.7 rebounds.

Pellom, who led WCU to the championship game with a career-high 21 points against No. 5 Georgia Southern on Friday, finished averaging 11 points and over two steals, with eight total assists.

Following Powell's trey, Chattanooga connected on back-to-back 3-pointers by Brooke Hand and Laura Hall to pull ahead by six, 68-62, igniting a 17-0 run as the Lady Mocs pulled ahead, 79-62. Over the final 5:45, WCU connected on just one of its final nine field goal attempts and committed four turnovers during the decisive UTC run.

Western Carolina (23-9) put four players in double-figures led by 14 from Brooke Johnson, all coming in the opening 20 minutes, with Powell also adding 14 including a perfect 3-for-3 showing from beyond the 3-point arc. Keith added 11 points and a team-high eight rebounds, with sophomore Kendra Eaton just missing double figures with nine points on 4-of-6 shooting, with junior Monique Dawson adding eight points and a game-best five assists.

Chattanooga's Alex Anderson scored 18 of her game-high 30 points in the opening half to give UTC a 38-36 lead at halftime. UTC led by as many as five in the final two minutes of the opening stanza, but five points from WCU's Johnson cut that margin to two with seven of her 14 first-half points.

WCU opened the game with seven-straight points before an 11-3 UTC run gave the Mocs their first lead six minutes into the game. The two squads traded baskets for the next five minutes with three ties and neither team gaining more than a two-point advantage.

With 9:18 left in the opening half, Anderson scored six-consecutive points to give UTC a five-point lead. WCU would trim that margin to as few as one on a Johnson three-pointer, but UTC maintained its lead for the remainder of the half.

The see-saw battle continued through the first 14 minutes of the second half with neither team leading by more than four points until Powell's trey knotted the game at 62, setting up the final six minutes. With Western forced to foul to stop the game clock, Chattanooga made 11 of their 14 free throws in the final two minutes to stave off any WCU comeback aspirations.

Behind Anderson, Hall finished with 18 points with Hand adding 15, each nailing three, 3-pointers on the afternoon. Freshman Shanara Hollinquest added 14 points off the bench for the Lady Mocs.

Western struggled from the free throw line on the afternoon, tying season lows with only six free throws made and 50-percent shooting overall (6-of-12). Chattanooga was 83.3-percent (20-of-24) from the line with each team connecting on six 3-pointers on the day.

2007 All-Tournament Team
 
First Team
Alex Anderson, Chattanooga
Brooke Hand, Chattanooga
Tiffany Brown, Georgia Southern
Chevon Keith, Western Carolina
Brooke Johnson, Western Carolina
 
Second Team
Whitney Tossie, Appalachian State
Laura Hall, Chattanooga
Shanara Hollinquest, Chattanooga
Kristen Boone, UNC Greensboro
Ashley Pellom, Western Carolina

Most Valuable Player: Alex Anderson, Chattanooga