University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
UNC Asheville
South Carolina State
Aughburns and Okoli Lead Bulldogs to First Win at SC State
11.18.2009 | Women's Basketball
Lindsey Thompson had 12 points and Kendall Shepard added 11 points as the Bulldogs won their first game of the season to even their record at 1-1.
Lauren Johnson had a game-high 16 points and Sophilia Hipps had 14 points and 12 rebounds to lead SC State (1-1).
"This is a great road win for us," said Asheville head coach Betsy Blose who earned her 99th victory at Asheville. "I liked the way we played down the stretch. They made a run at us but we were able to make free throws and win in a hostile environment. We knew if we forced the issue we would get fouled and in the first half we did a good job of making our free throws."
The home standing Bulldogs raced out to an 8-2 lead as UNC Asheville was without a field goal for the first 6:21. Okoli's lay-up at 12:39 was the first Asheville field goal and cut the deficit to 8-5. An Aughburns lay-up at the 7:52 mark gave Asheville its first lead at 15-14. SC State would tie the game at 20 with 4:42 and at 24 with 2:53 left in the half. Asheville would end the period on a 11-3 highlighted by Shepard's buzzer beating jumper and would not trail again.
The Bulldogs gained its largest lead (47-33) on a Aughburns lay-up and free throw with 14:25 left to play. Asheville led by 12 (55-43) on an Okoli lay-up with 8:18 to play. The Dogs would score just one more field goal the rest of the game.
SC State got as close as 63-60 on a three-pointer by Joi Walker with 34 seconds left, but Asheville would go 4-for-6 from the free-throw line in the final 30 seconds to secure the win.
Asheville went 21-for-38 (55.3 percent) from the charity stripe as SC State committed 30 fouls in the game. SC State went to the line just nine times (6-for-9, 66.7 percent). SC State took 33 three-pointers against the Asheville zone and hit a season-high 10 while the visiting Bulldogs went 6-for-15 (40 percentage) from long range after going 1-for-20 in their opener.
SC State won the rebounding battle 51-46 and had a 25-5 advantage in points in the points but Asheville shot 40 percent from the floor to just 28.6 percent for SC State.
Aughburns and Okoli were the first Bulldog duo to record double-doubles in the same game since Lindsey Montgomery and Aughburns did it on Feb. 7, 2009 against Charleston Southern.
Asheville will return home on Saturday, Nov. 21, to face Lees-McRae at 2 p.m. in the Justice Center. The game will be part of a double-header with the men's team playing Campbell at 4:30 p.m.
