College of Charleston
Presbyterian
Gerty, Kotcella Lead Cougars to 74-51 Victory over Blue Hose
12/1/2007 5:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Brooke Kotcella scored 15 points, while Tonia Gerty added a career-high 13 to lead the College of Charleston women's basketball team to the 74-51 win over Presbyterian this afternoon in front of 293 fans at the John Kresse Arena.
Charleston earns its first win of the season to go to 1-4, while Presbyterian drops to 0-7.
The Cougars opened the half with a 10-0 run in the first three minutes of the game and extended it to a 24-4 lead with just under 10 minutes remaining before intermission. Charleston forced nine turnovers during the stretch, while the Blue Hose suffered through a poor shooting performance, missing on 13 shot attempts in the first 11 minutes of play. The Cougars held the double-digit advantage for the remainder of the half and went into the locker room with the 17-point 39-22 lead. Presbyterian shot just 30.0 percent in the first half, compared to the season-high 42.4 first-half shooting percentage by the Cougars.
Presbyterian opened the second half with a 7-3 run to cut the lead to 13 points, 42-29, but that would be as close as the Blue Hose would get as the Cougars used a 13-0 run from 16:18 to 10:22 to take the lead to 53-29. A basket by Sharie Hopkins ended the drought at 10:05 but by then the damage was done. Charleston opened up its lead to 29 points, 70-41, before settling with the 23-point, 74-51 win. The Cougars shot a season-high 54.5 percent in the second-half and held the Blue Hose to just 33.3 percent.
Charleston shot 47.3 percent from the field for the game, compared to 31.5 percent for Presbyterian. The Cougars and Blue Hose had solid performances from behind the free throw line, Charleston going 16-for-20 and PC going 16-for-24. CofC was six-for-13 in three pointers, while Presbyterian was one-for-four. The Cougars took the rebounding edge, 40-35 and had five less turnovers, 26-22.
Following Gerty and Kotcella, two Cougars posted nine points in the game, Deidra Jones and Megan King. Jones led in rebounds with six on the afternoon.
Lea Smith led the Blue Hose with 13 points, while Hopkins had 12. Amy Jones was the other player in double-figures with 11. Three Blue Hose led in rebounds with six, Hopkins, Kristin Kidd and Taylor Price.
Charleston hosts USC Upstate Monday, Dec. 3rd at 7:00 p.m., while Presbyterian travels to South Carolina State for a 5:30 p.m. tip-off Tuesday, Dec. 4th.
