SPARTANBURG, S.C. – After a close first half, the Wofford women's basketball team pulled away in the second to secure a win over the ETSU Buccaneers, 73-51, at the Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium Saturday afternoon. With the result, the Terriers jump up to 5-1 in conference action and 10-10 overall to reach the .500 mark for the first time all season. The Buccaneers drop to 2-17 overall, 1-5 in SoCon play.
The win is Wofford's second consecutive victory, and it's the eighth-straight over ETSU in a streak that dates back to Feb. 14, 2019. At 5-1, the Terriers have their best-ever start to Southern Conference play through six games in program history, besting the previous mark of 4-2 that was set last season.
"I'm just really happy for our players and our program," said head coach
Jimmy Garrity of the historic achievement. "Best SoCon start in school history. Just happy for them and happy for all the players that came before us."
"Honestly, it feels great," said sophomore guard
Annabelle Schultz. "It's super exciting to see where we go this season."
The Terriers shot 39.4 percent from the field on a 26-of-66 clip and 28.0 percent beyond the arc on 7-of-25. The Bucs totaled 34.4 percent on 21-of-61 shooting and 21.7 percent from three with a 5-of-23 mark. The Buccaneers committed 16 fouls in the game to give the Terriers 18 free throws, of which they converted 14 for a 77.7 percent rate. Wofford outrebounded ETSU 38-33 on the day. The Terriers forced 18 Buccaneer turnovers for 14 extra points and limited their own turnovers to single digits at nine. Wofford dominated in the paint, doubling ETSU's 16 paint points with 32.
"Tonight, we struggled a little bit early on scoring the ball," said Garrity. "It felt like the rim had a lid on it. But we just kept battling and overcoming. Our mindset got a little down, and we just had to pick each other up. And I thought our players did a great job after halftime of adjusting to that and picking each other up."
Though Wofford never trailed, leading for 38:52, the Terriers started off slow. Wofford shot 32.4 percent on 11-of-34 in the first half, to lead 32-23 at the break. The Terriers found their rhythm in the second half, improving to a 46.9 percent mark on 15-of-32 shooting. Wofford upped its scoring to 41 points after the break, holding the Bucs to 28 second half points.
"Conference play, you got to step up," said freshman guard
Reagan Rapert. "We struggled offensively today a little bit, but we just had to keep pushing the ball, and playing in transition was a big thing today."
To Rapert's point, 12 of Wofford's points came via fast breaks, doubling ETSU's six.
"Just be who you are," added Garrity of his halftime message to the team. "Do the things that you do well. Defensively, we've been playing pretty well, guarding their stuff. No second chance points for them. Toughness, grittiness. And eventually, I thought we were going to start making some shots. I thought [Annabelle] was a huge spark for us coming off the bench, scoring some, got deflections and steals. Overall, just everyone came in and did their job."
Annabelle Schultz led the way for a second-straight game with a career-high 19 points on 6-of-13 shooting, 5-of-11 from three. She tied her career-highs in field goals and three-pointers. The sophomore also added a pair of steals, which led the team.
"She's feeling really confident, but she's put in the work for her craft," said Garrity of his leading scorer. "I'm sure she'll thank her teammates because they knew she was hot. They found a way to get her the ball, and at the end of the day she converted. I'm really happy for her. She's just playing really well, and she couldn't care less about that. All she wants to do is win."
"It feels amazing," said Schultz of her career-high performance. "First off, just the team win in general feels amazing, but for me to have the performance that I did behind my teammates, they really helped me achieve that. So thanks to them."
Jackie Carman was the only other Terrier in double figures with 15 points, doing the majority of her damage at the charity stripe with a 6-of-8 free throw clip.
Reagan Rapert was just shy of double-digits at nine points, turning in another balanced performance. She tied her career-bests with six assists and six rebounds, topping the squad in assists.
Niyah Lutz posted seven points, and
Lilly Hatton added six with seven rebounds.
Alexis Tomlin tallied five points and led the way with 10 boards.
Ja'Rae Smith contributed four points.
Helen Matthews,
Alea Harris,
Sydnee Richetto and
Abbey Crawford each posted two points to round out the scoring. Every active Terrier played and scored in the contest.
"[The confidence] is at an all-time high," said Schultz of the team. "After losing to Mercer and then winning two back-to-back just gets us back on track to accomplish the things that we want to. So we're feeling great about ourselves right now."
Wofford jumped out to a hot start, scoring the first 10 points of the game.
Lilly Hatton started things off just over a minute in, followed by buckets from
Reagan Rapert and
Jackie Carman. Hatton dropped another one in, and Carman hit a pair of free throws to cap the run. ETSU scored its first points at the charity stripe at 4:52 after the first media timeout, but
Annabelle Schultz responded with a three to truly set the tone for the rest of the contest. After a couple of Buccaneer buckets,
Alea Harris put home a fastbreak score to finish off the quarter with Wofford up by 10 points, 16-6.
Alexis Tomlin opened the second frame with a pair of free throws, but ETSU would keep things close, cutting the lead to six points at 6:17. However,
Annabelle Schultz popped another triple to keep the Bucs at bay. ETSU would score again, but Schultz remained hot and clutch with yet another trey. The squads traded blows, and ETSU picked up some momentum with back-to-back three-pointers the cut the deficit to three with 1:07 left. The Terriers responded to finish the half strong, as a
Jackie Carman and one play followed by yet another Schultz three negated ETSU's triples and brought the lead back out to nine points. Wofford led 32-23 at the break.
After trading blows to begin the second half,
Niyah Lutz drilled back-to-back buckets to get Wofford's lead out to 13 points. However, ETSU was determined not to quit, hitting a three and then a jumper to pull within eight. After trading scores, Wofford pulled back out via a jumper from
Reagan Rapert and a triple from
Annabelle Schultz.
Alexis Tomlin hit a free throw to cap the run with Wofford's lead at 14 with 2:20 left. The Teams traded baskets again, but Schultz punctuated the penultimate quarter with her fifth three-pointer of the game, drilling it at the buzzer to give the Terriers a now commanding 17-point lead, 51-34.
Niyah Lutz drained a three of her own to begin the final frame, and
Jackie Carman hit one of her own the negate an ETSU score as Wofford pulled out to a 21-point lead. Six-straight points from the Buccaneers cut the lead to 15 points at 6:45, but it was too much of a hole to climb out of. The squads traded blows, and
Annabelle Schultz swiped a steal and converted the fast break layup to secure her career-high 19
th point. Alexis scored, followed by Carman and
Ja'Rae Smith to cap a run with Wofford up by 23 at 2:28. The Bucs would score a couple more times, but it was all for naught.
Abbey Crawford put home the final bucket of the affair to punctuate the contest with Wofford winning, 73-51.
"We're really going to enjoy this for a couple of days here," said Garrity. "We'll watch film, and we've got two tough road games coming up. Greensboro, Western, those two are really tough places to play. It's going to take our best effort. We're going to have to be locked in to win."
The Terriers will now hit the road for a North Carolina road swing, heading to UNC Greensboro on Thursday, Feb. 3. Tipoff against the Spartans is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. Wofford then heads to Cullowhee for a 2:00 p.m. matchup with Western Carolina on Saturday, Feb. 5.
"It feels pretty good to go 2-0 this week," said Rapert, "and we've got to continue this next week, too."
