Jan. 27, 2003
GREENVILLE, S.C. - The Western Carolina women's basketball team took sole control of second place in the Southern Conference standings with a 77-64 win over Furman Monday night in Timmons Arena. The Catamounts now stand at 14-4 overall and 7-2 in the SoCon, their best league start ever. Also, at 14-4, this is the program's best record since the 1977-78 season, before the Catamounts became a Division I program. With the loss, Furman falls to 10-8 and 6-3 in the SoCon.
Furman fell behind quickly as the Catamounts connected on three early three-pointers to take a 17-4 lead with 14:15 left in the period. Another three-pointer by Melissa Ervin at the 12:17 mark gave Western Carolina a 20-7 advantage, but the Cats did not score another field goal until 2:53 left in the half. Despite the drought, WCU was able to hold onto a lead of at least five points for the remainder of the half, and led 39-28 at the break. The Lady Paladins not only suffered through 27.8% field goal shooting in the first half, but hit just 37.5% of their free throws, despite a 69.5% season average. Conversely, the Catamounts connected on 54.5% of their first-half field goals and 60.0% of their free shots.
The second period saw WCU stretch its lead to 13 on a Yoneko Allen layup at the 17:23 mark, but Furman cut the Catamount advantage to seven on a Laney Harris three-pointer at the 10:42 mark. Three minutes later (6:58) a Deshara Shealey field goal plus a free throw tied the score at 57, but WCU went on a 12-0 run to put the game out of reach.
The Catamounts were topped by Yoneko Allen's career-high 23 points. With 5-of-12 three-pointers in the game, Allen moved into fifth place on WCU's all-time career list for made three-point field goals. Tiffany Hamm added 20 to the WCU total, which put her over the 800 mark for her career (816). Ki-Ki Glass topped the team with six assists and added a season-high five rebounds. In the end, the Cats shot 54.9% from the field and a stellar 45.5% (10-of-22) from three-point range. Furman, meanwhile, managed just 31.9% from the field, 33.3 % from three-point range, and 55.6% from the line.
The Lady Paladins were paced on the night by Laney Harris, who totaled 13 points, while Lauren Few added 12. Katie Roach socred a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds, while Deshara Shealey was the leading playmaker with seven assists.
Western Carolina hosts Davidson next in a 4 p.m. double header this Saturday, Feb. 1, in the RAC.
