College of Charleston Sneaks Away with Close Win
1/9/2010 9:17:00 PM | Women's Basketball
STATESBORO, GA - Georgia Southern held a 10-point lead midway through the second half, but the College of Charleston Cougars clawed their way back, capturing a 57-53 win Saturday afternoon (January 9) in Hanner Fieldhouse. Trailing by one at 49-48, Charleston went 9-of-10 from the free throw line to close out the win.
The loss dropped Georgia Southern to 7-8 overall and 2-4 in league play, while CofC snapped its two-game losing streak improving to 10-5, 5-2.
"We need someone to step up in the last couple of minutes and gain some confidence back," said head coach Rusty Cram. "Right now we are questioning and doubting ourselves and we need to get past that. We will keep working in practice on these types of situations and sooner or later the tide will turn."
College of Charleston pulled out with a 7-4 lead aided by a Tonia Gerty three-pointer to open the game. Sophomore Samantha Williams (Kingsport, Tenn.) quickly tied the game for the Lady Eagles responding with a '3' of her own at the 14:57 mark. After the second knotted score of the half at 9-all, the Cougars maintained a steady lead but GS was never far behind. CofC built a six point lead, the largest of the stanza, at 21-15, following a trey from Ericka Williams. Two made free throws from Carolyn Whitney (Duluth, Ga.) preceded Charleston's third trey of the half before GS went on 9-0 run with four points from Jessica Geiger (Stone Mountain, Ga.) to take the halftime lead, 27-24.
Georgia Southern carried over its run to start the second half gaining a 31-24 lead with buckets from Whitney and Krista Tate (Atlanta, Ga.). But CofC cut its deficit to two points on consecutive treys from Brooke Kotcella and tied the game at 34-all with a lay-up from Gerty five minutes into the frame. The Lady Eagles responded with a 10-0 run, fueled by five points from Geiger, to take a 10-point lead, 45-35. But it was short-lived as the Cougars put together a 9-0 run of their own, bringing the score to 45-44. Deidra Jones sparked the Cougars scoring nine points within five minutes as Charleston took its first lead since the 3:08 mark in the first half with free throws from Gerty, 50-49.
A Tate trip to the charity stripe knotted the score 50-50 as CofC took two two-point leads before Tate brought the score to 54-53 connecting on one from the free throw line with 27 seconds on the clock. Hitting 1-of-2 from the free throw line, Gerty gave the Cougars a two-point lead, 55-53 as the clock wound down. Fouled by Janay Wilson (Warner Robins, Ga.), Jade Hughes cushioned the Cougars' lead hitting two from the charity stripe for the final score, 57-53.
Whitney added five points in the second half to her first half nine to lead the Lady Eagles with 14 points, including two three-pointers. J'Lisia Ogburn (Dublin, Ga.) followed with 12 points, while Geiger added 11 to the board. Geiger and Ogburn both pulled down a team-high six rebounds to lead the edge on glass.
For the Cougars, Gerty scored a game-high 17 points on 5-of-11 shooting. Jones and Hughes added 13 and 10 points, respectively. CofC won the edge on glass, 35-28, led by Jones' six rebounds. The Cougars secured 14 offensive boards to the Lady Eagles' five.
Both teams were almost equal from the floor with Georgia Southern shooting 40 percent from the field and 70 percent from the charity stripe. Charleston shot 35 percent from the floor and 84 percent at the free throw line. Both teams hit 33 percent of three-pointers attempted.
Georgia Southern will look to snap this three-game skid on Monday, January 11 against Furman. Game time in Hanner Fieldhouse is slated for 7:00 p.m.
