College of Charleston
Samford
Cougars Drop Second Straight, Fall to Samford, 70-47
1/5/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Samford's Emily London scored 28 points, while Monica Maxwell added 18, 15 of which came in the second half, to lead the Bulldogs to the 70-47 win over the College of Charleston in women's basketball action in front of 531 fans at the Pete Hanna Center in Birmingham, Ala.
Charleston dropped its second straight to go to 9-5 overall and 4-2 in the Southern Conference. Samford improved to 11-5 and 5-2.
Samford outscored CofC, 29-10, in the opening 11 minutes of the second half and built a 23-point, 65-42 lead with 8:57 remaining. Charleston cut the margin to 18 off a jumper by Tonia Gerty (Port Orange, Fla.) with 5:47 to go, but that would b the last points scored by the Cougars and they fell by the final 23-point margin, 70-47. After shooting 42.9 percent from the field in the first half, the Cougars shot just 26.1 in the second, while Samford shot 39.1 percent, including a 58.3 three-point field goal percentage. Charleston was just 0-for-six from beyond the three-point line in the final 20 minutes.
Charleston and Samford played to six ties in the first half and the score remained close throughout. Tied 20-20 at the 10:01 mark, the Bulldogs used a small 9-2 run to build its largest lead of the half and the Cougars trailed by seven, 29-22, with 4:38 remaining. Charleston fought back, in part to Brooke Kotcella (Anderson, S.C.), who scored eight of her 10 points in the half during the final four minutes to cut the margin to four at intermission, 36-32.
Kotcella led the Cougars with 14 points, while Ericka Williams (Blackville, S.C.) followed with 13. Deidra Jones (Irmo, S.C.) and Williams paced the team in rebounds with eight each. Maxwell and London were the only Bulldogs in double-figures, with Alex Crow leading the team in rebounds with eight.
Charleston shot 35.3 percent from the field in the second half, while Samford shot 42.6. Samford out-rebounded CofC slightly with the 35-32 advantage. Samford was 12-for-25 from the three-point line for 48.0 percent, while the Cougars were just 20.0 percent. Charleston held the 18-13 edge in turnovers.
Charleston plays its third straight road game Saturday, Jan. 9 when it travels to Statesboro, Ga., to play the Georgia Southern Eagles in a 1 p.m. game.
