CULLOWHEE, N.C. - Chelsea Wooten twice pulled Western Carolina to within four points of Furman inside the final four minutes of regulation as she sank her third 3-pointer and later connected on a pair of free throws in Thursday night's Southern Conference women's basketball opener. However, the Paladins managed to withstand the Catamount rally and pulled away down the stretch to defeat WCU 84-69 on Ingles Court at the Ramsey Center. Senior Mya Love led three Catamounts in double figures with 12 points off the bench in the setback.
"I thought we gave tremendous effort throughout the game tonight," head coach Kiley Hill commented. "We couldn't make shots early and had a chance to try and get the early edge. Down the stretch over the final five minutes, we made some critical defensive errors and couldn't make some easy baskets that could have helped us."
Love was 4-of-6 from the field and added four at the free throw line as the Jonesboro, Ark. native also tallied three rebounds and three assists. Lonasia Brewer picked up her fifth double-figure scoring effort of the season with 11 points, filling the stat sheet with a team-high six rebounds and a team-best five assists. Wooten finished with 11 points including the three triples.
Furman put five in double figures as Sydney Ryan tallied a game-high 19 points and six rebounds, while Sydney James and Niveya Henley had 14 points for the guests. Kate Johnson scored 13 points and just missed a double-double with nine rebounds and Jada Session picked up the double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
Western Carolina (5-11, 0-1 SoCon) came out fast in the opening minutes of the contest with the game's first six points to gain the early edge before the Paladins answered with the next eight points to earn a slim two-point advantage. Following a three-point play from Love that pushed WCU back in front, Furman went on a 5-1 spurt that allowed the guests to take the 13-10 lead.
Nicole Azar answered with a triple on the ensuing possession, followed by a pair of Brewer free throws before Furman scored the quarter's final seven points to take a 20-15 lead after 10 minutes.
Furman (11-6, 1-0 SoCon) opened the second quarter similarly to how they finished the first with a 9-3 run over the opening two minutes to push the lead to 11, 29-18. Jada Burton and Zanoria Cruz helped WCU climb back with five of the next seven points that cut the deficit to eight before a three-point answer from Furman that quickly stretched the lead back to 11, 35-24 halfway through the second quarter.
WCU cut the deficit to five over the final four minutes using a 10-4 run to trimmed the Paladins lead to 39-34 at the break. Love spearheaded that burst with six points including a pair of layups.
The two teams traded scores over the opening three minutes as Wooten connected on a pair of her threes in the early going of the second half. WCU whittled the deficit to four, 47-43, at the halfway point of the third quarter before Furman answered with four quick points to extend the lead to eight. Burton and Azar connected on threes on back-to-back possessions to cut the Furman lead to three, 51-48, before the guests used a quick 6-2 spurt to stretch the lead to seven with 1:41 to play in the third. The two teams spent most of their time at the free throw line in the final minute, resulting in a 59-54 score headed to the fourth quarter.
WCU scored six of 10 points to begin the final frame, which cut the Paladin's advantage to three, 63-60, with 7:20 to play. Furman responded with six straight points over the next 1:17 to stretch the lead to nine at the halfway point of the quarter.
The hosts continued to battle with Wooten spurring a 7-2 run in the ensuing 90 seconds, which cut the deficit to four, 71-67, with three minutes to play; however, Furman closed on a 13-2 run to claim the league opener by the score of 84-69.
For the game, the Catamounts shot 41.7% (25-of-60) while holding the Paladins to 41.3% (26-of-63). Both teams made six threes, with Furman shooting 26-of-30 at the free throw line compared to 13-of-18 for WCU. The guests won the rebounding battle 44-to-32 as Western Carolina had a 14-9 edge in assists.
Furman took advantage of WCU's 13 turnovers as the guests scored 19 points compared to eight points off seven Paladin turnovers for the Catamounts. WCU had a 34-32 edge in points in the paint, and the guests had a slight advantage of 35-33 in bench scoring.
The Catamounts close out the opening week of conference play by hosting Wofford at 2 p.m. on Saturday from Ingles Court at the Ramsey Center. Wofford sits at 8-7 thus far as the Terriers fell to UNCG on Thursday in their SoCon opener. The matchup with Wofford will be shown on ESPN+ (paid subscription required), with live stats available on CatamountSports.com.
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