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Western women remain winless in five games at Ramsey Center
Blackwell

Christy Blackwell puts up a shot for Western Carolina in Saturday's 76-71 loss to Georgia Southern. - Photo by Mark Haskett

Western Carolina's women's basketball team remained winless at home after dropping two games to teams from the Peach State.

The Lady Cats (7-8, 1-5) lost a non-conference game to Georgia State 76-65 last Thursday then fell to Georgia Southern 76-71 in Southern Conference action Saturday. Western is 0-5 at the Ramsey Center.

Georgia Southern connected on five of six late free throw to hold off a Western comeback. Danna Simpson scored 16 points for the Lady Eagles. Lauren Langley added 14, and Sharon Mitchell had 13 points and eight rebounds.

WCU was led by April Fleck with 21 points, seven rebounds and four steals. Tiffany Hamm and Janetta Heggins finished with 15 and 14 points, respectively. Heggins was eight of 10 from the floor.

The Lady Cats took an early lead, but fell behind in the first half by as many as 11 on two occasions. Georgia Southern led 38-31 at halftime.

The second half swayed back and forth with WCU making runs to cut the Eagle advantage to one at the 18:15 and 10:15 marks. With 9:46 on the clock, Western took the lead for the first time since early in the game.

WCU went up by seven with six and a half minutes to play before the Lady Eagles made their run. They took a four-point advantage with under a minute to play and made their free throws down the stretch to secure the victory.

The Lady Cats held a 31-23 rebounding advantage.

Georgia Southern shot 60.9 percent from the floor in the first half and finished at 56.5 percent. Western also shot well and made 52.8 percent of its field goal tries.

The Lady Eagles built their advantage at the foul line where they were 22 of 26 compared to WCU's 11 of 20.

Turnovers were almost even with Georgia Southern committing 22 and Western having 21.

WCU's Laura Echols, the league's leading scorer, got in early foul trouble and managed just four points.

Completing the WCU scoring were Kris Kent with eight, Marsha McGillivary with four, Christy Blackwell with three and Jackie Stepp with two.

Leslie McElrath scored 23 points leading Georgia State to its 76-65 win last Thursday. Evita Rogers netted 17 points and pulled down nine rebounds. Also scoring in double figures were Marcia Maddox with 13 points and Holly Coates with 11. Maddox handed out seven assists.

Fleck paced Western with 20 points and six steals. Echols and McGillivary both finished with 12.

WCU used a 15-6 run to take a 10-point lead with 2:28 remaining in the half and was up 39-31 at intermission.

The lead held up until the 14:54 mark when a jumper by McElrath gave the Lady Panthers a 44-43 edge.

Western stayed close and trailed by three at the 3:49 mark after a pair of free throws by Echols and a layup by Blackwell. Georgia State pulled away with a 16-8 run.

The Lady Panthers made 50 percent of their field goal tries. WCU shot just 34.8 percent after intermission and finished at 48.1 percent.

Georgia State had a 32-28 rebounding edge. Echols led WCU with seven.

Blackwell handed out five assists.

Western had 28 turnovers to 27 by the Lady Panthers.

Rounding out the WCU scoring were Hamm with eight, Heggins with six, Blackwell with five and Katie Scott with two.

The Lady Cats were scheduled to open a three-game conference road trip at 7 p.m. Tuesday against East Tennessee. They will meet College of Charleston at 4 p.m. Saturday and Appalachian State at 7 p.m. next Tuesday.

Back to Sports: 01/18/01.