Feb. 16, 2010

Box Score |   

CULLOWHEE, N.C. - Western Carolina women's basketball won its second straight game with a 57-42 win over UNC Greensboro Tuesday in the Ramsey Center. The Catamounts improve to 6-20 and 5-12 in the Southern Conference while the Spartans fall to 7-18 and 4-13 in the SoCon.

Junior guard Kendra led the Catamounts in scoring with a game-high 16 points against UNC Greensboro. She was 7-of-14 from the field and 2-of-3 from the free throw line.

Leading 27-19 at the half, Western Carolina built as much as an 11 point lead in the first three minutes of the second half. UNC Greensboro scored four unanswered points to cut the Catamount advantage to seven off a pair of free throws by the Spartans' Lakiah Hyson.

Kaila'Shea Menendez's performance at the free throw line halted UNC Greensboro's scoring spurt. She sliced to the bucket in three straight possessions, earning a free pass to the free throw line and going 6-for-6. Menendez was near perfection in the game at the free throw line, hitting a career-high 11-of-12 from the charity stripe ending the game with 13 points.

The Catamounts hovered at a nine to 11 point lead for the next five minutes. Western Carolina took a double-figure advantage for good when Heather Swayne hit a jumper with 8:48 left to make the score 45-34.

With 7:45 left, Western Carolina tied its largest lead of the game, 15 points, when Menendez hit two free throws to make it 49-34. In the final six plus minutes of the game, UNC Greensboro only hit two field goals.

The Spartans built its largest lead of the game, 10-7, with 11:51, left off a jumper by Sarah Folwell - it would be UNC Greensboro's last field goal for the next 10 minutes of the contest. A jumper by Kendra Carroll and a three-point bucket by Emily Clarke tied the game at 10. Western Carolina took the lead, for good it would turn out, off a pair of free throws by Clarke, who ended the game with 11 points.

Clarke's free throws for the lead started a 15-0 run by Western Carolina to build a 27-12 advantage with 1:54 left. The Spartans' Hyson hit a lay-up to end the UNCG scoring drought and they scored the last seven points of the half, to trail by eight, 27-19, at the half.

Western Carolina shot 38.0 percent from the field and held UNCG to 26.4 percent. The Spartans had 12 turnovers and the Catamounts turned it into 18 points. The Catamounts won the rebounding advantage by one, 37-36, and senior guard Jessica Jackson tied her career-high with seven boards.

Saturday's game against Samford is Western Carolina's Senior Day as Swayne, Kristen Feemster and Jackson will be honored. It is also the Catamount's annul WBCA Pink Zone game. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m.