College of Charleston
UTSA
Jones' Career Day Leads Cougars to 62-45 Win
11/21/2009 11:00:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Deidra Jones (Irmo, S.C.) scored a career-high 23 points and 19 rebounds to lead the College of Charleston women's basketball team to the 62-45 win over Texas San Antonio in front of 231 fans at the Carolina First Arena.
Charleston won its third straight to improve to 3-1, while UTSA fell to 2-2 on the year.
The Cougars only led by three, 35-32, with 17:25 remaining in the game, before a 13-4 run, led by Jones with seven of those points, increased the margin to 12, 48-36, with 9:40 to go.
A basket by Whitney York at 8:07 cut the Cougar lead to 10 (48-38) with 8:07 remaining but the Roadrunners were outscored 14-7 down the stretch and fell by the final of 62-45. Charleston held UTSA to just 19 points in the second half, while scoring 33.
CofC held UTSA to just 18.2 percent from the field in the second half, while shooting a blistering 54.2.
The Cougars outscored the Roadrunners 13-5 over the first nine minutes of the first half before UTSA posted six straight to cut the margin to two, 13-11, with 10:02 remaining before intermission. Charleston increased its lead to five on several occasions but could not get any further as UTSA kept answering and even took the lead twice, the last coming at the 3:25 mark off a layup by Valencia Cottom.
With the Roadrunners leading by four, 26-22 with 2:05 to go, Jones and Tonia Gerty (Port Orange, Fla.) both nailed jumpers in a span of 35 seconds to tie the game at 26-26 with 1:08 left. After several missed shots, the Cougars ended up with control of the ball in the waning seconds and Jade Hughes (Spartanburg, S.C.) nailed a three pointer as time expired to give CofC a 29-26 lead heading into the locker room.
Charleston dominated the paint in the first half, outscoring UTSA 20-10, and held the 38.2 -32.4 field goal percentage.
Following Jones with her 23 points was Gerty with 14 and Hughes with 11. UTSA was led by Amber Gregg with 20 points and Judy Jones with 13.
The Cougars shot 44.8 percent from the field for the game, compared to 25.4 for the Roadrunners. Charleston out-rebounded UTSA 51-39, while the Roadrunners had the 15-9 edge in turnovers.
Charleston next travels to Chicago Ill., to take part in the Doubletree White Invitational. The Cougars face Northwestern Friday, Nov. 27 at 6:30, before taking on Iowa State Saturday, Nov. 28, at 3 p.m. at the Welsh-Ryan Arena.
