March 10, 2008

Box Score

CHARLESTON, S.C. - No. 2 seeded Western Carolina women's basketball (25-8) suffered a heart-wrenching loss as the Lady Catamounts fell to No. 1 seed Chattanooga (29-3) 71-59 in the Southern Conference Championships Monday at North Charleston Coliseum.

Head Coach Kellie Harper was visible shaken in the post-game press conference as she spoke about the loss and how hard it was to go into the locker room after the game and face her players. The Lady Catamounts proved their pose by fighting back in the second half but the club just couldn't keep the hot-shooting Lady Mocs at bay.

"One of the hardest things that you will have to do as a coach is go into the locker room and talk to a broken-hearted team," Harper said. "When you know that's the game that they wanted more than anything - they worked hard for it and Chattanooga was a better team tonight."

Western Carolina was down by as much as 15 points in the second after trailing by 11, 33-22, at the half. Junior guard Lauren Powell hit a three-pointer to spark a 9-0 Lady Catamount run to trim the Lady Mocs' lead to six, 39-33 in the first four minutes of the second half.

Battle, battle, battle, is what Western Carolina did for most of the final 20 minutes of the game. The Lady Catamounts kept the Chattanooga lead to under double digits for most of the first 10 minutes of the second frame. A lay-up by junior Kendra Eaton cut Chattanooga's lead to just four, 43-39, with 12:38 left but Chattanooga did what it was able to do all night, answer, thanks to a three-pointer by senior Laura Hall.

A lay-up by freshman Emily Clarke cut the Chattanooga lead back to five, 46-41, but again Chattanooga answered this time when Alex Anderson hit a jumper to push the lead back to seven. The Chattanooga lead was 12 with 3:49 left when Ashley Pellom stole the ball and raced down the court for a lay-up, but Hall came back to hit a pair of free throws for yet another answer.

Western Carolina started off strong to begin the game with a pair of three-pointers. Monique Dawson hit a three to take an early 3-2 lead and fellow senior Jessika Johnson drained just the second trey of her career to give the Lady Catamounts a 6-5 advantage.

The Lady Cats just didn't have an answer for seniors Anderson and Hall. Anderson had 14 points in the first half and ended the game with 25 points while Hall had 22. The duo accounted for 47 of Chattanooga's 71 points in the game.

Western Carolina shot just 36.9 percent from the field and was out-rebounded by Chattanooga 43-36. The Lady Catamounts did hit one more three-pointer then Chattanooga as WCU had five threes and the Lady Mocs hit four.

Johnson, who was voted to the Southern Conference All-Tournament First Team, led the Lady Catamounts in scoring for the second time in the SoCon Tournament with 13 points. She ended the three-game tournament averaging 13.3 points per game. Dawson and Pellom each had 12 points.

Pellom and freshman Emily Clarke were voted to the Southern Conference All-Tournament Second Team. Pellom averaged 9.3 points per game and Clarke averaged 10.3 in the tournament.

Western Carolina is now at the fates of the NCAA selection committee. With an overall record of 25-8 there is still an outside shot the Lady Cats could receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. If the club doesn't get the call for the NCAA they are assured a spot in the WNIT. The postseason picture will become clearer after the NCAA Field of 64 is announced March 17.

Western Carolina Head Coach, Kellie Harper

Opening Statement:

Our kids played hard and they didn't quit and I'm proud of them for that. Hats off to Chattanooga, we're going to be pulling for them in the NCAA Tournament."

On not taking advantage of opportunities at the end of the first half:

"I absolutely thought that we didn't take advantage, they started off on such a tear offensively and we tried to weather the storm and look for some daylight and we finally got it but we couldn't do anything offensively. We were rushing shots, not being strong in the paint, shots that we are usually able to knock down we weren't scoring. Our coaching staff talked about it before the game and we thought `we have to score with them' because they are going to score and we focused on try to score and got some good looks and weren't able to convert ."

Monique Dawson, Senior Guard

On defending Laura Hall:

"She is a good player but we had a game plan to switch off of her when she was on the ball and when we do focus on their post players it is harder to defend her, we were just letting her go around sometimes but we did try our best and she's a great player. When she gets her hands on the ball she can pull the shot or take it all the way to the basket but we tried our hardest and came up with a game plan and stuck to it. It didn't work out the way that we wanted it to but we were going to play hard no matter what."

Jessika Johnson, Senior Forward

On defending their post players:

"They have some good post players. Our goal was to double off of them, sag off of them when they had the ball but they either shot the ball or went behind you. They are just really good post players."