Box Score Box score
SPARTANBURG, S.C. -- Led by Sam Ramirez’s near triple-double, the Appalachian State University Mountaineers cruised to an 81-60 win over the Wofford College Terriers Saturday afternoon in the Benjamin Johnson Arena in a Southern Conference contest.
Ramirez’s 24 points is four points shy of her career-high of 28 points she set earlier in the 2010-2011 season. She led the Mountaineers, who forced 32 Wofford turnovers, with a career-high eight steals. As a team, App State had 23 steals that lead to 31 points off turnovers. Wofford only managed nine steals and forced the Mountaineers into 26 turnovers.
App started the game with the first two baskets on a Ramirez jumper and Ashlen Dwart layup to take a 4-0 lead, but Jessica Escorza drained a corner three to pull the Terriers within one, 4-3. It would be the closest the Terriers would come to taking the lead just two and a half minutes into the game.
From there, the Mountaineers used an 8-0 scoring run over the next three minutes of play to take a 12-3 lead capped off by a Ramirez fast-break layup. After a Rachel Brittenham jumper for the Terriers, cut the lead to 12-5, App mounted a 7-0 run to push the lead to 14 points, 19-5, that ended with a Courtney Freeman old-fashion three-point-play at the 13:57 to play.
Four minutes later, Wofford cut the lead to single-digits on an April Moorhouse layup. On the the next possession for the Mountaineers, Anna Freeman convert a layup to push the lead back to 11, but again Moorhouse used a post move to trim to lead back to nine, 26-17, with 8:56 remaining in the half.
App responded with a 6-0 run to regain control of the game and extend the lead to 15 points, 32-17, a minute later. App would push the lead to as high as 20 points, 44-24, with just under three minutes in the half, and would carry a 44-28 lead into the locker room.
At the break, Ramirez led all scorers with 15 points by going 6-of-10 from the field and 3-of-6 from behind the three point arc. No Terrier had reached double-digits at the half. App State forced 16 turnovers and had recorded 12 steals through the first 20 minutes.
After the break, Wofford cut the lead to 46-35 with 15:23 remaining in the game on a another Escorza three, but the Mountaineers wouldn’t let the Terriers back into the game. App used a 10-2 run to extend the lead to 19 points, 56-37, with just under ten minutes to play.
Four minutes later, the Mountaineers held their second largest lead of the game, 26 points, 69-43 after Dewart’s three-point-play. Two minutes later, App pushed the lead to 27, their largest lead of the game, on a pair of Michelle Taylor free throws that made it 79-52.
The Terriers cut the lead under 20 points, 79-60, on an Erin Frost corner three, but the Mountaineers ended the game with a 21-point win, 81-60, after an Ashley Kelly layup.
App forced 16 Wofford turnover overs in the half and added 11 steals.
The Mountaineers shot 46 percent from the field and 44 percent from three, while the Terriers were 34 percent overall and 29 percent from behind the arc.
App held a plus-10 rebounding margin, 47-37, including 15 offensive boards that led to 21 second chance points. Wofford only managed nine offensive boards for six second chance points.
Wofford’s bench outscored the App bench 31-15 led by Logan Morris’ ten points to lead the team.
April Moorhouse, who has now scored in double-digits in seven straight games, tied Morris with ten points to lead to the Terrier offense. Rachel Brittenham handed out eight assists to increase her SoCon leading assists per game average to 5.7.
Mahagony Williams grabbed a team-high seven rebounds. She took sole possession of fourth place in the Wofford all-time rebounding list with 737 career rebounds. She also scored four points tonight to pull within eight points of becoming the 12th Terrier all-time to score 1,000 points and will be the fifth Terrier with at least 1,000 points and 700 rebounds.
For App behind Ramirez, Dewart chipped in 21 points and ten rebounds for her fourth double-double of the season. Anna Freeman added 16 points by going 8-of-11 from the floor.
With the loss, Wofford falls into a four-game SoCon skid and have dropped four of their last five contests to fall to 5-8 overall and 1-4 in the conference. App State improves to 10-3 overall and 4-1 in conference play.
The Terriers will travel to Western Carolina to take on the Catamounts Monday, January 10 with tip off schedule for 7 p.m. weather permitting.
