Ericka Williams (Blackville, S.C.) scored 15, while NeShonda McLaurin (McColl, S.C.) posted a career-high 11 points off the bench, to lead the College of Charleston women's basketball team to the 63-50 win over Elon in action tonight in front of 207 fans at Carolina First Arena.
Charleston remained undefeated at home this year with a 4-0 mark and improved to 6-3 overall and 2-0 in the Southern Conference, while Elon dropped to 2-5 and 0-2. The Cougars start the Conference season 2-0 for the first time since 2006-07.
"As a staff we were extremely pleased with our bench play tonight," said Head Coach Nancy Wilson, who improved to 12-4 over Elon. "We got some tremendous play off of our bench and it was definitely a night where it saved us and allowed us to play a good game."
The Cougars controlled much of the second half and kept the lead close to double-digits for most of the 20 minutes. Down by nine with 14:08 to go, Elon's Courtney Medley nailed a three-pointer to cut the margin to six, 39-33 with 12:34 remaining. Cougar Indya Mudd (New Orleans, La.), who posted a career-high eight points, ended the threat quickly with a three-pointer 13 seconds later to take the lead back up to nine at 42-33. That would be the closest the Phoenix would get as they fell by 13, 63-50.
Tied 8-8 with 14:01 remaining in the first half the Cougars, led by eight points from Williams, outscored the Phoenix 21-8 over the next 12 minutes to take the 13-point 29-16 lead with 2:07 on the clock. Elon responded with six unanswered points, fueled by four from Amber Wall, to go into the locker room only down by seven, 29-22.
"They really keyed on our big guards and went at Jade [Hughes] and Tonia [Gerty]. Even though her stats might not look great she played very hard and her defense was strong for us as usual. They were running two or three people at our ball handlers most of the night. They might not have looked like they were at their very best but they faced some strong pressure. "
Scoring was fairly even for the game, with Elon holding the slight edge, 39.6 percent to 39.0. Charleston out-rebounded the Phoenix, 43-30, and had a slight edge in turnovers, 18-22. Charleston posted its second straight double-digit free-throw game, going 13-of-20 from behind the charity stripe. Elon was seven-of-15. The Cougar bench accounted for 31 of the 63 points, while the 16-6 edge in offensive rebounds led the Cougars to the 10-1 second-chance points advantage.
Leading Elon was Ali Ford with 11 points, followed by Kelsey Evans with eight rebounds. Following Williams and McLaurin for the Cougars was Jade Hughes (Spartanburg, S.C.) with eight. Tonia Gerty (Port Orange, Fla.) was just one from her career-high with a team-leading nine assists. Williams had eight rebounds as well to pace the Cougars.
"Ericka really set the pace tonight and was a tremendous force for them to deal with."
The Cougars take 12 days off for exams before returning to action at Furman Saturday, Dec. 19 at 3 p.m.
