Final Stats

CULLOWHEE, N.C. - Ace Easter tied her career-high with 21 points as Western Carolina women's basketball upset Furman 77-64 Monday, in its home finale, at the Ramsey Center.

The Catamounts improve to 10-18 on the season and 2-11 in the Southern Conference. Furman falls to 17-12 and 6-7 in SoCon play.

Western Carolina played one of its most complete games of the season scoring a nearly an even 37 points in the first half and 40 in the second. The 77 points scored by Western Carolina is the most since the Catamounts scored 72 in the 84-72 loss to the Paladins in Greenville Jan. 31.

The Catamounts and Paladins traded buckets the first five plus minutes of the game. With the contest tied at nine, Easter hit the first of three three-pointers to give WCU a 12-9 lead with 13:40 left in the first half. Western Carolina never relinquished the lead after Easter's trey.

Western Carolina built its first double digit lead when Justin Taylor hit 1-of-2 free throws pushing the Catamount lead to 23-13 with 8:23 left. A jumper by Holli Wilkins, with two seconds left in the half, cut the Catamount advantage to 37-30 at the half. A 12 to six run, in the first four minutes of the second half, gave Western Carolina a 13-point, 49-36, lead with 16 minutes left. That run helped Western Carolina maintain a double-digit lead for the remainder of the game. The Catamounts built its largest lead of the game, 64-47, when Kyia Hough knocked down a three-pointer with 6:41 left.

With Furman trailing 68-57 and looking to build momentum, with 3:07 left in the game, WCU junior forward Erika Joseph came up with a monster block off a shot by Wilkins. Joseph also ripped down the defensive rebound and it turned into a three-point swing when Ali Lane was fouled twice in two possessions. Lane hit 3-of-4 to push the Catamount lead back to 14, 71-57, with 1:24 left.

Down the stretch, in the final 1:38 of the game, Western Carolina was 8-of-10 from the free throw line to close out the game.

Western Carolina hit seven three-pointers in the game in comparison to Furman's two. The shooting percentage from the field was nearly even with WCU shooting 39.3 percent and Furman 34.4 percent.

The game was truly won at the free throw line as the Catamounts earned trips to the charity stripe 33 times and hit 26 shooting 78.8 percent. WCU also got 30 points from its bench.

The win halts a seven-game losing streak for Western Carolina. The Catamounts also split the series with Furman.

All but one player who saw action for Western Carolina got into the scoring column. Besides Easter's 21 points, Taylor also scored in double figures with 11. Redshirt sophomore Brianne Mack, Lindsay Simpson and Hough just missed scoring in double figures with nine. Furman had four players in double figures led by Wilkins 17 points. Whitney Bunn and Cierra Carter each had 13 and Brittany Hodges added 12.

Western Carolina will play its final Southern Conference regular season game of the year Friday at UNCG Friday. Tip time is set for 7 p.m.