College of Charleston
Western Carolina
Second Half Surge Gives Cougars 68-61 Victory over Catamounts
12/22/2009 3:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Tonia Gerty (Port Orange, Fla.) scored 14 points, while Ericka Williams (Blackville, S.C.) added 13, to lead the College of Charleston women's basketball team back from a halftime deficit to take the 68-61 win over the Western Carolina Catamounts in front of 415 fans at the Carolina First Arena.
The Cougars improve to 8-3 overall and 4-0 in the Southern Conference. The 8-3 mark matches the best start for CofC in Division I history. Charleston started last season with the same record. The Cougars are also 4-0 in SoCon play for the first time. Western Carolina drops to 2-9 and 1-2 in the league.
After Western Carolina opened the second half with a jumper to increase its lead to seven with 19:35 remaining, Charleston responded with seven unanswered points to tie the game, 32-32, with 17:09 on the clock. The Cougars built a seven-point lead, in part to five points from Williams, and led 41-34 with 15:11 to go. The Catamounts used a 9-0 run the next three minutes to re-take the lead with 12:32, before Brooke Kotcella (Anderson, S.C.) nailed her only three-pointer of the night at 11:36 to give the Cougars the lead back and for good.
Western Carolina cut the margin to five and three on several occasions but could not get any closer as the Cougars used clutch free throws, including a seven-for-10 effort in the last minute, to seal the 68-61 win.
Western Carolina led the entire first half and by as much as seven, 22-15 at the 6:41 mark, before the Cougars used a small 7-2 run to cut the deficit to two with 3:16 remaining. The Catamounts increased the lead back to six before settling at the half holding the five-point, 30-25 lead.
Following Gerty and Williams in scoring was Kotcella with 12 points. Leading the team in rebounds was Deidra Jones (Irmo, S.C.) with seven. Emily Clarke paced the Catamounts with 19 points, while Caitlin Hollifield added a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds.
Charleston shot 44.2 percent from the field, while Western Carolina went 35.5. The Catamounts held the rebounding edge, 42-36, and had one more turnover, 15-14. Of the 14 Cougar turnovers, only three were committed in the second half.
In what was billed as the "Habitat for Humanity Game" fans brought just over 150 books to help Habitat for Humanity families.
The Cougars return to the hardwood Dec. 29 with a 7 p.m. matchup against Charleston Southern at the Carolina First Arena.
