Dec. 18, 2010

Box Score

Middleton Post-Game Comments (AUDIO)

ELON, N.C. Redshirt sophomore Janae' McKinney had a career-high double-double, 19 points and 12 rebounds, to help lead Western Carolina women's basketball (3-6, 1-1 SoCon) to a 74-64 win over Elon (5-4, 0-2 SoCon) Saturday in Alumni Gym.

The Catamounts have won back-to-back games and enjoy its first winning streak of the season, after defeating Georgia State, 51-37, on December 11.

McKinney was 4-for-4, and 9-of-12 overall, at the free throw line to assist in fending off Elon in the final 37 seconds of the game. Eight of McKinney's career-high 12 rebounds were on the offensive end.

Senior Kendra Carroll added 17 points in the game and also dished out four assists. Junior Caitlin Hollifield rounded out the double figure scorers for Western Carolina with 16 points and had two assists.

Western Carolina held Elon scoreless for the first three plus minutes of the second half. The Catamounts took a three point lead at halftime, 32-29, and built a 10-point advantage going on a 7-0 run to begin the half. The Phoenix scored its first bucket of the second half, when sophomore Kelsey Evans hit a jumper at 16:15. Evans' field goal spurred Phoenix on a run of its own, outscoring the Catamounts 11-3, to tie the game at 42 with 11:30 remaining.

Elon would take its last lead of the game when Ali Ford hit a three pointer with less then 10 minutes left in the game. Western Carolina answered Ford's three-pointer with back-to-back treys by Hollifield and Diamond Hunnicutt, the second in the game for both, to push the Catamounts' lead to five points, 52-47.

The Phoenix would trim the Catamounts' lead to one point, 52-51, one last time, when Ford struck again with a circus style lay-up. Ford's acrobatics weren't enough for Western Carolina's tenacious scoring in the final six minutes, as the Catamounts outscored Elon 22-13. In those final minutes of the game, 18 of the Catamounts' 22 points were from the free throw line.

Overall, Western Carolina was 21-of-31 from the free throw line and shot 39.3 percent from the field. The Catamounts had five three pointers and Elon had eight. WCU also won the rebounding advantage 41-38.

In the first half, the game was tied twice and the lead changed seven times. Western Carolina built its largest lead of the first half, seven points, when Hunnicutt hit her first three pointer of the game. A pair of lay-ups by Elon's Lisa Archie cut the lead to three. McKinney pushed the lead back to six, for the Catamounts, with 1:23 remaining, but Elon scored the final bucket of the half when Lei Lei Hairston hit a three-pointer with 35 seconds left in the half.

Elon's Ford led all scorers with 21 points, hitting five three-pointers in the game.

Western Carolina completes its first Southern Conference road swing on Monday playing at Appalachian State. Tip time is set for 7 p.m.