Jan. 12, 2008

Box Score

CULLOWHEE, N.C. - After nearly a month on the road, Western Carolina women's basketball was welcomed home with a 66-53 Southern Conference victory over UNC Greensboro Saturday in the Ramsey Center. A crowd of 1,010 saw the Lady Catamounts win their third consecutive Southern Conference game and improve to 11-5 on the season and 3-1 in the conference. UNC Greensboro falls to 3-13 and 1-4 in the conference.

The Lady Catamounts had a rocky start to begin the game. Western Carolina missed its first nine shots, and got its first point of the game when senior Monique Dawson hit 1-of-2 from the free throw line. Senior Ashley Pellom hit Western Carolina's first field goal of the game at the 15:36 minute mark, draining a three-pointer to tie the game at six.

The game see-sawed back and forth and after the sixth tie of the first half, at 16, Dawson hit a jumper with 7:55 left in the half to give Western Carolina a 20-18 lead. All together the Lady Catamounts went on a 20-4 run in the final eight minutes of the half to lead 38-22 at the half.

Western Carolina built as much as a 22 point lead in the second half before UNC Greensboro went on a mini run. UNC Greensboro cut the lead to 13 with 2:28 remaining but Western Carolina didn't allow UNCG to score a field goal in the final two minutes to close out the game.

Freshman Emily Clarke led both clubs with 11 points and also had four rebounds and three steals. Senior Ashley Pellom was the only other player, on both squads, to score in double figures with 11. Sophomore Kristen Feemster scored a career-high eight points and also pulled down six rebounds.

Western Carolina shot 40.6 percent from the field and their 50 rebounds was the third-best mark this season. The Lady Catamounts benefited from 40 points off the bench and also scored 19 points off second chance attempts.

The Lady Catamounts will play an early game on Monday as a part of the athletic department's Education Day. Children from area schools will get to come to the noon game to see Western Carolina take on Elon in the Ramsey Center.

HEAD COACH Kellie Harper QUOTES:

"This is the most important time of the season. Our conference schedule is the most important part piece of the year. I thought our Davidson win gave us a lot of confidence. I feel like we are doing okay right now, but we still have to continue finding ways to improve."

Talk about when the team was down 6-1 to start the game:

"I felt like we weren't clicking offensively. We weren't finishing around the basket. I didn't think we were playing bad - we had several offensive boards in that stretch. We just couldn't get the ball in the hole. We came down and got some stops in that stretch to keep the lead from going to far until we could find that person who could put the ball in the basket. I really wasn't panicking at that point; you just try and settle your team down and get back into an offensive mind set."