College of Charleston
Georgia Southern
Cougars Slide by Georgia Southern
1/20/2011 4:12:00 AM | Women's Basketball
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The College of Charleston women's basketball team held the Georgia Southern Eagles to 24.6 percent shooting en route to a 40-39 comeback victory Wednesday night at Carolina First Arena.
"I'm thrilled to get the win and get over the hump," CofC Head Coach Nancy Wilson said. "We played a little nervously trying to hang on to it, but we knew Georgia Southern is a good team and they made a charge. We played good defense to make them shoot as poorly as they did, and that helped us out tremendously."
Freshman Janae Smith (Matteson, Ill.) led the Cougars (5-13, 2-7) with 12 points and eight rebounds as she scored in double-digits for the eighth time this season. Megan Fischer (Hoffman Estates, Ill.) nearly recorded a double-double with nine points and 10 rebounds.
CofC trailed for much of the first half, but seized the lead on Fischer's 3-point shot to go up 11-10 with 6:45 to go in the half. The Cougars gained some momentum and finished the period on a 7-3 run to go into the locker room with an 18-13 advantage. The Cougars shot nearly 39 percent from the field in the opening period while holding the Eagles (8-11, 5-5) to 15.6 percent shooting.
The Cougars picked up from where they left off in the first half, as they opened the second period with a 3-pointer from senior Tonia Gerty (Port Orange, Fla.) Gerty also contributed on defense with three of the Cougars' 14 steals.
CofC led by as many as nine points as it built a 34-25 lead with 8:55 left in the game. The Eagles would not go down without a fight as they put together a 12-4 run to cut the Cougar lead to one at 38-37 with 1:20 to play.
Needing a basket the Cougars went to Smith as she drove to the basket and got to the free-throw line with 28 seconds remaining. Smith knocked down both shots to provide a three-point edge for CofC. A foul on the other end and a couple free-throws later the Cougar led 40-39 with 11 seconds left in the game.
After a missed one-in-one free-throw attempt the Eagles had one last shot on a 3-point attempt, but the Cougars played tough defense and preserved the one-point victory.
Defense and rebounding proved keys to the Cougars success as they out-rebounded the Eagles 41-36 and had three players with at least three steals. Freshman Jillian Brown (Midlothian, Va.) tied her career-high with four takeaways for the game. Brown also tied her career-high for assists with five.
Gerty finished the contest with eight points and passed the 1,100 point mark for her career. She currently ranks sixth on the CofC Division I scoring list with 1,104 points.
Wilson said she feels that her team has improved in every game and wants to see them use the positive momentum from this victory.
"I think this win will give us some confidence moving forward," Wilson said. "We want to take advantage of being at home, because we have been on the road more then any other team in the conference. Now we are back home and have some experience and hopefully we can pull them out."
Next up the Cougars hit the road as they take on Elon Saturday Jan. 22 at 2 p.m.
