College of Charleston
Furman
Cougars Fall in SoCon Opener, Set School Block Record
12/3/2011 9:02:00 PM | Women's Basketball
CHARLESTON, S.C. - The College of Charleston women's basketball team played aggressive defense with a school record 15 blocks and 12 steals, but could not take the victory as they fell 60-51 against the Furman Paladins at TD Arena.
Junior Latisha Harris provided a lot of energy for the Cougars as the led the team with 14 points, 14 rebounds and seven blocks. The seven blocks are the second most in school history for a single-game. The Cougars 15 blocks set a new school record, breaking the previous mark of 10, set on Feb. 11, 2002 against Appalachian State.
CofC had four other players score at least eight points in the game. Freshman Christy Hewatt had another strong outing as she posted eight points, three rebounds and three blocked shots.
The Cougars (1-5, 0-1) trailed 19-8 at the 7:24 mark in the first half after the Paladins (4-2, 1-0) went on a 10-0 run as CofC struggled to make shots. For the next five minutes the Cougars picked up the intensity as they used a 9-0 run to close the Paladin lead to 20-17. CofC got within one at 20-19 at the 1:17 mark, but trailed 24-19 at the half.
The Cougars opened the second half with a basket by Harris, who followed that up a huge block that looked more like a volleyball kill. The teams traded buckets for the first five minutes of the half, but then the Paladins caught fire with a 15-5 run to lead 47-33 with 8:36 left in the game.
The Cougars would not go down without a fight though, and cut the lead to eight on a Megan Fischer 3-point shot to bring the score to 55-47 with 2:15 to play. The Paladins made five-of-six free-throws down the stretch to secure the victory.
The Cougars have a quick turnaround as they host Wofford on Monday Dec. 5 at 7:00 p.m. at TD Arena.
Head Coach Nancy Wilson Quotes
In general
"I was pleased. I thought we played much better than we have been playing in the last few games. We cut down on our turnovers. I was happy to see Cathryn (Hardy) and Jill (Brown) take more shots. The things that give me hope for the future are (Megan) Fischer is going to shoot a lot better and I think Latisha (Harris) is going to finish a lot of those shots. If those can be things we can count on, on a regular basis than we can start improving in other areas."
On play of Latisha Harris
"She came out the end of the first half and second half with a lot of intensity and using her athletic ability the way she needs to do. When she plays that hard and goes to the boards that hard most of the opponents in our conference, she will be able to play that way against."
On Building Confidence
"We are so much at a stage of just building everyone's confidence right now. If we can have different people having a good game here and there than hopefully those people become more confident and things will become more consistent."
