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 Senior Jessika Johnson had 18 points in the 78-61 win over Wofford Friday. |
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March 7, 2008
CHARLESTON, S.C. - No. 2 seeded Western Carolina women's basketball advanced to the semi-finals of the Southern Conference Tournament with a 78-61 victory over No. 10 seed Wofford Friday at the North Charleston Coliseum. The Lady Catamounts will play the winner of the Davidson and Elon game, who play on Saturday, at 2:30 p.m. Sunday. The game Sunday will also be televised by SportSouth.
With an overall record of 24-7, Western Carolina ties the school record for most wins in a season, a mark the club set in 2006-07. Wofford finishes its season at 10-21 overall. Head Coach Kellie Harper has led her team to the semifinals of the SoCon Tournament three of her four years at the helm of the Lady Cats' program.
Though Western Carolina led by 14 points at the half, 39-25, the Lady Catamounts had just nine offensive rebounds, and one second chance point. After being challenged by Harper in the locker room to step up their offensive rebounding play, Western Carolina pulled down 15 offensive boards in the second half, which accounted for 12 second chance points. Overall, Western Carolina tallied 50 rebounds in the game, and now are 11-0 when recording 50 or more rebounds in a game.
Wofford rallied from the 14 points first half deficit to trim Western Carolina's led to five, 48-43, with 13:53 remaining. The Lady Catamounts answered with a 6-0 run to push the lead back into double digits, 56-43.
After cutting the lead back down to nine, 56-47, with 7:49 off a jumper by Terriers' Kelsi Koenig, senior Jessika Johnson was fouled and drained both of her free throws to push the lead back to 11.
Johnson was a huge presence for Western Carolina in the paint scoring 18 points; two shy of tying her career-high, and was also 8-of-11 from the free throw line. Freshman Emily Clarke came into the game and provided a huge spark for the Lady Cats scoring eight of her 10 points in the second half. Kendra Eaton rounded out the double figure scoring for Western Carolina with 11 points and also led the team in rebounding with eight.
Western Carolina shot just 38.6 percent from the field and hit just two three pointers but was 22-of-31 from the free throw line. The 50 rebounds were also 14 more then Wofford's 36.
HEAD COACH Kellie Harper QUOTES:
"I told our team after the game that it doesn't matter how pretty you play. In a tournament it's survive and advance. I was proud that our team found a way to win. The game was choppy. It seemed like it was a long game but that might have been because it was a morning game. I was proud that we were able to keep our composure. It comes down to making plays. We pride ourselves on offensive rebounding. We didn't do well in the first half and I challenged our team to do better in the second half. We needed to get second shots."
FRESHMAN FORWARD Emily Clarke:
"Every team has a run in them sometimes during a game and we had to keep our composure and keep our focus. We worked hard to play our game. Wofford ran a lot of hustle plays and were very physical. It was up to us to respond when the made their runs."
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