University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
Monday, December 19
Orangeburg, SC
6 p.m.
UNC Asheville
82
at
92
South Carolina State
Asheville Rally Falls Short At South Carolina State
12.20.2011 | Women's Basketball
ORANGEBURG, S.C. – Finding themselves down by as many as 26 points in the second half the UNC Asheville women's basketball team mounted a furious comeback, but could not dig themselves out of an early deficit, as they fell to South Carolina State 92-82 at the Edward L. Tullis Arena.
“I'm really proud of how our girls fought back down the stretch,” said UNC Asheville head coach Betsy Blose. “Our freshmen stepped up big for us and I can't say enough about how well Shonese Jones played tonight. We're disappointed by the loss but I think we did a lot of good things in the second half to build on.”
Shonese Jones put up another career night as she scored 30 points for the Bulldogs, with Gentry Manley scoring 16. Brittany Gwyn scored 13 for the Blue & White while Jones and Manley each pulled down a team-high four rebounds.
Asheville started five freshmen in the game, going with the lineup of Gwynn, Jones, Jeannie Buckner, Tacey Trammell and Leah Wormack. Asheville falls to 2-7 on the year and remains winless on the road.
SC State had five players in double figures with Trinese Fox, Tiana Hemphill and Lauren Johnson scoring 13 apiece. Tracey Flowers scored 11 and Tiara Knotts scored 10 for the Lady Bulldogs, with Knotts and Cabriel Duren collecting six assists apiece.
Hemphill posted a double-double, pulling down a game-high 15 rebounds. The Lady Bulldogs improve to 5-6 on the year and 3-1 at home.
The two teams struggled offensively early in the game, but SCSU hit its stride around the 14 minute mark. The Lady Bulldogs took the lead at 10-8 with 14:01 remaining, and would outscore Asheville 27-15 over the next eight minutes.
SCSU took a 17-point lead into halftime, thanks in part to a 3-pointer by Johnson in the closing seconds which gave the Lady Bulldogs a 51-34 advantage heading into the break.
State's hot-shooting would continue in the second half as they pushed their lead to as many as 26 at 64-38 with 14:30 remaining. The Lady Bulldogs would keep Asheville at arm's length throughout most of the second half until the final five minutes, when the Bulldogs got a seven-point swing thanks to a double technical foul by SCSU.
Over the next minute and a half the Blue & White cut the lead to single digits and got to within seven points of the Lady Bulldogs on a Grace Blaylock trey with just under a minute to go.
However, Asheville was forced to foul to conserve time and SCSU was able to convert on its free throws to ice the game.
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