Women's Basketball Falls to Red-Hot Charleston Southern, 82-71

ASHEVILLE, N.C. - Charleston Southern hit 10 three-pointers and went 22-of-23 from the free throw line to down UNC Asheville, 82-71 in Big South Conference women's basketball action Saturday afteroon at Justice Center.

The Bulldogs (11-15, 2-8 BSC) had five players in double figures. Freshman Chioma Okoli scored a career-high 20 points. Ashton Barton added 14 points, while Ana Baker, Jessica Monroe and Stacy Shepard contributed 10 points each. Shepard finished with her third straight double-double as she collected 13 rebounds and had three blocked shots.

CSU (8-19, 3-7 BSC) was led by Pam Tolbert's 23 points. Natalie Caldwell added 21 points. The Lady Buccaneers went 10-of-19 from beyond the arc and were a near perfect 17-of-18 from the charity stripe in the second half.

Barton scored on a 10-footer at the 2:25 mark to tie the game at 67-67. Charleston Southern scored back-to-back buckets from Caldwell and Tolbert to give the Bucs a 71-67 lead. Two free throws from Tina Cecarvalho pushed the margin to 73-67 with 58 seconds left.

The Bulldogs made one last charge as they closed to 74-71 on two free throws from Okoli at the 36-second mark. But Asheville could not score again as CSU was a perfect 8-of-8 from the line in the last 30 seconds to seal the victory.

Asheville controlled much of the first half as Okoli scored 14 of her points in the opening half. Her lay-up at the 3:18 mark gave the Bulldogs a 39-25 lead.

But the Lady Bucs rallied in the final two minutes as the visitors got two treys from Tull and one from Tolbert to pull within 39-34 at halftime.

After intermission, Tolbert hit another trey to pull CSU within 39-37 before the Bucs eventually tied the game at 45-45 on yet another trey, this time from Caldwell. There were five lead changes in the second half before the Lady Bucs made their 6-0 run late in the game to take the lead for good.

UNC Asheville returns home on Tuesday night to host Radford in a rematch of last year's Big South Conference championship game starting at 7 p.m.