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Western women stop ETSU, lose to College of Charleston
Echols Western Carolina's Laura Echols puts up a shot for two of her 29 points in Saturday's 85-79 victory over East Tennessee. - WCU photo by Josh Doub Western Carolina's women's basketball team split a pair of home Southern Conference games during the past week.

The Lady Cats (10-5, 3-4) defeated East Tennessee 85-79 Saturday and lost to College of Charleston 64-59 Monday.

Laura Echols scored 29 points on 12 of 16 field goal shooting and pulled down 11 rebounds in the victory over ETSU. Tiffany Hamm had 17 points, nine rebounds and four assists, and Jennifer Gardner added 11 points.

The Lady Bucs were led by Lauren Trantham with 20 points. She made eight of nine shots from the field and was four of four at the line. Also scoring in double figures were Megan Jackson and Erin Thurman with 12 and 11 points, respectively.

Western jumped to a 6-0 lead and did not surrender the advantage until the 9:49 mark when Candace Gibson hit a layup to give ETSU a 22-20 lead. The game featured five ties over the next six minutes.

Hamm scored five points, and Echols had four in a 9-1 run putting WCU up 40-32 with 32 seconds left in the half.

The Lady Bucs cut the gap to 40-37 at the break.

Hamm's basket gave Western its largest lead of the second half, 46-39, with 17:26 left.

Six points from Trantham keyed a 15-3 run putting the Lady Bucs up 54-49 at the 13:06 mark.

A layup by Echols gave the Lady Cats the lead for good, 71-69, with 4:40 on the clock. Yoneko Allen made four of six free throws in the final 30 seconds to seal the victory.

ETSU shot 54.2 percent from the floor compared to Western's 47.5 percent. However, the Lady Cats dominated the boards 41-29.

Western turned the ball over 20 times, and the Lady Bucs had 18.

Completing the WCU scoring were Janetta Heggins with nine, Allen with seven, Ki-Ki Glass with five, Marsha McGillivary with four and Katie Scott with three.

Brittney Scarberry scored all 17 of her points in the second half leading College of Charleston to a 64-59 victory Monday. Becky Wollenberg added 16 points for the Lady Cougars.

Echols led all scorers with 22 points, and Allen had 10.

Scarberry's effort, spurred by an 11 of 13 performance at the free throw line, helped erase a 30-27 WCU halftime lead and a 42-29 advantage with 15:52 left to play.

After gaining its largest lead of the night, WCU would only score four points over the next eight minutes as Charleston took its first lead, 48-46, with 7:45 left.

Wollenberg's layup with 1:52 to go gave the Lady Cougars the lead for good at 57-55.

Western had a 37-32 rebounding edge but shot just 38.5 percent from the floor compared to Charleston's 43.5 percent. The Lady Cats committed 20 turnovers, and the Lady Cougars had 18.

Glass handed out five assists, and Heggins came up with three steals.

Rounding out the WCU scoring were Hamm with eight, McGillivary with seven, Heggins with five, Gardner with four, Scott with two and Glass with one.

The Lady Cats will continue league play with a home game Saturday at 2 p.m. against Appalachian State and a game at 7 p.m. Tuesday at UNC-Greensboro.

Back to Sports: 01/17/02.