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Highlights
SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The Wofford women's basketball team played its first game of the new year and its first at home in exactly one month on Saturday, snapping a six-game losing streak by defeating Western Carolina, 61-58, in Southern Conference action inside Benjamin Johnson Arena.
Trailing by nine at halftime, the Terriers (3-10, 1-2 SoCon) began the second half on a 12-6 run and grabbed their first lead since the 10:14 mark of the first half, 45-44, with 8:22 remaining in the ball game. Western Carolina (7-6, 1-1 SoCon) responded with a 9-0 run to go back up eight, but Wofford chipped away and regained the lead with 1:13 to go, 57-55, on two made free throws by sophomore Ashton Fleming.
Justin Taylor attempted to put Western Carolina back on top with a 3-pointer on the next possession, but it missed and was rebounded by Wofford junior Lauren Kirby. With a 15-second differential between the shot clock and game clock, the Terriers looked to make it a two-possession game. Senior Logan Morris received a pass on the left wing from sophomore Jordan Frazier, shot-faked her defender, stepped inside the 3-point arc and buried a 15-footer to put Wofford up four with 15.3 seconds showing on the clock.
"It just pushed us over the edge and gave us that spark to know we could win the game," said Morris, who finished the afternoon with 16 points and five boards. "We talked about turning over a new leaf and this would be the game to change our season. We weren't going to let our deficit form the first half get us down in the second, and it paid off."
It all but put the game away as the Catamounts could not score on the ensuing possession and fouled Frazier on the rebound to send the Terriers to the line. Frazier buried both to make it a six-point game with five seconds left and seal the victory, improving Wofford to 3-1 on the year at home.
"It feels outstanding," Wofford head coach Edgar Farmer said. "I give a lot of credit to our team and how we fought back in the second half. We have had some ups and downs so far, but we really put it together today and showed some intestinal fortitude to battle back.
"Logan hit a big-time shot and Jordan sealed it with the free throws. We played together and we played connected today, and I thought that was the key to winning the basketball game."
Frazier completed the afternoon with a game-high 20 points, marking her fourth 20-point performance of the season. The sophomore guard also posted a career-high six assists and went for three steals. Both Frazier and Morris were 6-of-14 from the field.
On the glass, Kirby had a game-high 10 rebounds to post her third double-figure rebounding game of the season. Fleming had seven boards and the Terriers outrebounded the Catamounts 46-36, including 23-11 in the second half.
For Western Carolina, Justin Taylor, Shauna Terry and Lindsay Simpson all finished in double figures. Taylor had a team-high 14 points, Terry had 13 and Simpson went for 10.
On the afternoon, Wofford shot 40 percent (22-55 FG) and had a big second half in which it shot 55.6 percent (15-27 FG). WCU won the turnover battle 17-13, but shot just 30.2 percent from the field (19-63 FG).
Western Carolina scored on the game's opening possession courtesy of an offensive board and put-back by Terry. The Terriers scored nine of the next 11 points, capped by a Frazier trey, to lead 9-4 through five minutes.
Wofford went without a field goal for over four minutes as WCU narrowed the deficit. Freshman Kentra Washington finally ended the drought at the 10:33 mark to put the Terriers back in front 11-10.
A 14-5 Catamount run ensued that spanned exactly four minutes. It began with a layup and-1 for Simpson, who then went on to drain the next WCU basket after a Terrier turnover. Terry was good for four of Western's next five points, before Taylor buried a 3-pointer to extend the Catamount lead to seven. After another Wofford turnover, Alexis Carter went 1-of-2 from the line to complete the run with the visitors leading 24-16.
After the Terriers cut it back to five, Taylor drained another trey to put WCU right back up by eight. The basket came at the 5:05 mark and neither team made a field goal the rest of the half. It resulted in Western Carolina taking a 30-21 halftime lead.
Both teams were shooting under 30 percent at the break. The Terriers were 7-of-28 from the field (25 percent) while WCU was 9-of-34 (26.5 percent). Frazier led all scorers with 10 points and Kirby had five of her 10 rebounds in just nine minutes of action, getting sidelined early with two fouls.
It was Western Carolina who scored the opening points of the second half on a jumper from Rena Wakama, but Chanel Stokes responded from long range. After the Catamounts went back up 10, Wofford put together its second 9-2 run of the game and was within a basket, 36-33, on a Frazier layup at the 15:27 mark.
The Catamounts rallied to go back up by seven, but Morris took matters into her own hands by scoring six straight Terrier points. Redshirt senior Erin Frost took control of the ball with Wofford down five and drove through the lane to lay-in her first points of the afternoon. Morris went back to work, putting down another layup to make it a one-point game and sinking a pair of free throws on the next Terrier possession to give Wofford its first lead of the half, 45-44, with 8:22 to play. The two free throws earned Morris 10 of Wofford's last 12 points.
Western responded in a big way, going on a 9-0 run over two and a half minutes to go back ahead by eight. Hana Haden got it started with a big three after the Terriers had just regained the lead. Free throws from Taylor and Simpson made it a six-point game and Terry put in a layup to make it 53-45 in favor of Western Carolina.
Fleming stopped the bleeding and scored on consecutive possessions to get it back to four. Frazier then did the same, making a jumper at the 3:26 mark and bringing the game to its fourth tie, 53-53, with another jumper with 2:42 remaining, completing an 8-0 Terrier run.
Still tied with less than 90 seconds to play, Fleming got fouled underneath and went to the line for a pair. The sophomore drained both to put Wofford ahead and, after WCU came up empty, Morris drained the big jumper as Wofford earned its first Southern Conference victory of the season.
The Wofford women's basketball team is back in action on Monday, hosting Appalachian State inside Benjamin Johnson Arena. Tip is scheduled for 6 p.m.
Terrier Notes
- Wofford improves to 3-1 this season at home.
- Jordan Frazier scored a game-high 20 points, marking her fourth 20-point game of the season and 10th in double figures.
- Frazier had a career-high six assists.
- Logan Morris scored 16 points, marking her fifth double-figure scoring game of the season.
- Lauren Kirby had 10 rebounds, her third double-figure rebounding game of the year.
- The Terriers snapped a six-game winning streak.
- Wofford improves to 11-30 overall against Western Carolina and is now on a two-game series winning streak.
