College of Charleston
Northwestern University
Cougars Upend Northwestern, 54-50
11/28/2009 2:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jade Hughes (Spartanburg, S.C.) scored 15 points, including the last three baskets, to lead the College of Charleston women's basketball team to the come-from-behind 54-50 win over Northwestern in front of 659 fans at the Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston, Ill., as part of the Doubletree White Invitational.
The Cougars won their fourth straight to go to 4-1, while Northwestern dropped its first of the season and went to 4-1.
Trailing 41-27 with 14:57 remaining, the Cougars used a 21-0 run to take the lead at 9:27 off a jumper by Ericka Williams (Blackville, S.C.). Charleston increased its lead to 48-41 off six straight from Hughes. Kristin Cartwright ended the Northwestern drought at 4:39 with a jumper and free throw to decrease the margin to four. Amy Jaeschke cut the margin to two with a jumper at 4:01 and trailed 48-46.
Northwestern tied the game off two free throws at 3:28 and re-took the lead when Cartwright connected on two more free throws at 1:15 to go up 50-48. Hughes scored her third straight basket, a three-pointer, to give the Cougars the lead again, 51-50, with 51.8 seconds to go.
Tonia Gerty (Port Orange, Fla.) connected on two free throws at the 16 second mark, and Williams nailed one of two to give the Cougars a 54-50 lead with 6.2 seconds to go. Northwestern was unable to get a final shot off and Charleston came away with the 54-50 win.
The Cougars rebounded from poor shooting in the first half and went 46.4 percent from the field in the second, while the Wildcats shot 23.1.
Northwestern led 11-5 early in the first half before the Cougars cut the margin to two off a layup by Ariel Hatcher (Monroe, Mich.) that made the score 14-12, in favor of the Wildcats with 8:58 to go before intermission.
Five straight points from Kristin Cartwright brought the NU lead to seven before a three-pointer by Megan King (Fort Wayne, Ind.) at 7:15 brought the margin to four, 21-17. The Cougars went cold after that, only connecting on one field goal and a free throw the remainder of the half as Northwestern took a 10-3 run down the stretch to go into the locker room with the 31-20 lead.
For the half Charleston played well defensively and held Northwestern to 35.3 percent from the field, but was just 21.6 percent and 18.2 percent from beyond the three-point arc.
Charleston shot 32.2 percent for the game, compared to 30.0 percent for Northwestern. After going just two-for-11 in three-pointers in the first half, the Cougars went four-for-nine in the second. The Wildcats were two-of-23. Northwestern held the 49-43 edge in rebounds, but had three more turnovers, 11-8.
Following Hughes and her 15 points was Gerty with 12 and Brooke Kotcella (Anderson, S.C.) with 10 points to add to her team-leading eight rebounds. Jaeschke led the Wildcats with 16 points and 10 rebounds.
The Cougars face #24 Iowa State Saturday, Nov. 28, at 3 p.m. ET in their final game of the Doubletree White Invitational.
