College of Charleston
Davidson
Kotcella, Williams Set Career Highs in Victory Over Davidson
1/16/2010 10:00:00 PM | Women's Basketball
"This was a very big game for us because we were tied with Davidson for second place," head coach Nancy Wilson said. "If you're going to be competitive and strive to be the best in the conference, you've got to win these games on your home court and then have a fighting chance in away games."
Seniors Brooke Kotcella (Anderson, S.C./Wren) and Ericka Williams (Blackville, S.C./Blackville-Hilda) each had career highs in points against the Wildcats. Kotcella scored a game-high 27 points while Williams broke her previous career high of 17 points by halftime. The guard finished with 25 points on the afternoon.
The Cougars (12-5, 7-2 SoCon) established a 5-0 lead in the first minute of the game as Williams hit a shot from beyond the arc and followed it up with a jumper off a pass by junior Tonia Gerty (Port Orange, Fla./Spruce Creek). The team stretched its lead to double-digits at the 11:14 mark of the first half after Kotcella and drilled one from three-point land, forcing the Wildcats to call a timeout and regroup.
Although Davidson (8-9, 7-3 SoCon) was able to reduce its lead to eight points with 5:43 remaining on the clock, they couldn't hold Williams who went on an 8-0 run, punctuating it with a jumper off a pass by senior Indya Mudd (New Orleans, La./Bevill State CC) with just under three minutes to play. The Cougars scored 11 points off turnovers and finished the half with a 48-29 lead.
Davidson kicked off the second half with a 5-0 run before Kotcella halted it with her fifth three-pointer of the game. Following it up with a layup just 24 seconds later, the Cougars took their largest lead, 53-32, with 16:30 to play.
The Wildcats continued to build momentum in the second half, outscoring CofC 21-11 over the next eight minutes. A three-pointer by Ashley Lax at 6:42 brought Davidson within nine points, the closest the team had been since the 5:43 mark in the first half. The two teams continued to battle before Davidson began to foul in the final two minutes of the game.
Senior Jade Hughes (Spartanburg, S.C./Dorman) went 4-for-6 from the stripe while Gerty made 4-of-7 free throws in the waning minutes before Kotcella's layup gave the Cougars a nine-point lead with 1.3 seconds on the clock. Davidson's Monica Laune ended the game with a three-point shot at the buzzer but Charleston had already sealed the victory.
Kotcella led the Cougars with six rebounds while Gerty finished the day with 16 points, eight assists and career-high five steals.
Laune had a team-high 19 points for the Wildcats while Sophia Aleksandravicius had the games only double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds.
College of Charleston hosts Appalachian State on Monday at 7 p.m. in a conference matchup.
Notes: Senior Jade Hughes was honored prior to tipoff as the 23rd player in school history to score more than 1,000 career points.
