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No. 3 Wofford and No. 4 Mercer advance to SoCon Championship
Terriers defeat Bulldogs; Bears overpower Buccaneers
No. 3 Wofford 66, No. 6 Samford 48
ASHEVILLE, N.C.--Despite holding conference scoring champion Rachael Rose to 10 points under her season average, No. 6 seed Samford could not overcome Wofford’s swarming defense and balanced attack in losing a first-round tournament game to the No. 3 seeded Terriers, 66-45, at the 2024 Ingles Southern Conference Women’s Basketball Championships Thursday at Harrah’s Cherokee Center in Asheville, N.C.
Wofford advances to a SoCon Tournament semifinal game on Friday at 1:15 p.m. against No. 2 seed UNC Greensboro, which beat Furman, 64-44, earlier today.
Rose, one of five finalists for the Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year and a two-time conference Player of the Year, was limited to 12 points on five of 13 field goal shooting. The 5-7 junior guard from Scranton, PA led the Southern Conference in scoring (22.1), rebounding (8.7), assists (5.8) and free throw percentage (.875) during the regular season. While today’s point total tied for her lowest this season, she did contribute a game-high five assists.
Locked in a defensive struggle that ended in a 12-12 deadlock after one quarter, Samford seized a 19-15 lead when Alyssa Tarpley buried a three-point jumper with 8:05 left in the second quarter. However, Wofford proceeded to score 17 unanswered points in holding the Bulldog scoreless for more than eight minutes. Tarpley ended the drought with another three-pointer at the 46-second mark before halftime, as the Terriers assumed a commanding 32-22 lead at intermission.
The winning Terriers featured four scorers in double figures, with Maddie Heiss (18), Annabe Schultz (16), Indiya Clarke (10) joining Rose. Heiss, a freshman from Dallas, TX, threaded six of 11 field goal attempts and four of five from beyond the arc.
Wofford, which entered the game ranked ninth nationally in three-point percentage defense (.259), held the Bulldogs to 2-for-24 beyond the arc (.083). Conversely, the Terriers converted 42.9 percent (9-of-21) of their three-point tries
Lexi Pritchard and Tarpley led Samford in scoring with eight points each, while Emily Bowman–the No. 2 rebounder in the conference (8.5)--corralled a game-high eight rebounds for the Bulldogs.
RECORDS: No. 3 Wofford 17-12, No. 7 Samford 14-16
STATS TO KNOW
No. 4 Mercer 67, No. 5 ETSU 52
Mercer, which arrived at the Southern Conference Women’s Basketball Championship Tournament with a losing record but No. 4 seeding, survived a gritty quarterfinal game against No. 5 seed Eastern Tennessee State, prevailing by a 67-52 score Thursday at Harrah’s Cherokee Center in Asheville N.C.
The Bears (15-16) advance to a SoCon Tournament semifinal game on Friday at 11 a.m. against No. 1 seed Chattanooga, which demolished Western Carolina, 64-43, earlier today.
Summah Evans, a senior from Cairns, Australia, led the Mercer scoring parade with a game-high 21 points, while Mackenzie Johnson added 16 points on 7-of-11 shooting and a game-high nine rebounds.
In clearly the most evenly-matched contest of the tournament’s first day, there were seven lead changes and four ties in the first half of action. Mercer, which wiped out a 26-23 deficit by scoring nine unanswered points in the half’s final four minutes,
left the floor leading 35-28 at intermission.
Mercer’s bench delivered 19 points in the first half, with graduate forward Johnson leading the charge with 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the field.
The Bears stretched the lead to 37-28 to open the second half, but ESTU stormed back with Breanne Beatty canning two clutch baskets during a 12-3 spree that knotted the score at 40-40 with 5:50 left in the third quarter. But Mercer would not be denied, responding with nine straight points to regain control and a 49-40 lead.
The Buccaneers (18-12) would never seriously challenge the rest of the game.
Meghan Downing, a 6-2 sophomore center, paced Eastern Tennessee State in scoring with 16 points and added eight rebounds. ETSU’s Nevaeh Brown, the conference’s No. 5 scorer (13.7 ppg) and an All-SoCon First Team pick this season, was limited to seven points on 2-of-7 shooting from the field.
RECORDS: No. 4 Mercer 15-16, No. 5 Eastern Tennessee State 18-12
STATS TO KNOW
ASHEVILLE, N.C.--Despite holding conference scoring champion Rachael Rose to 10 points under her season average, No. 6 seed Samford could not overcome Wofford’s swarming defense and balanced attack in losing a first-round tournament game to the No. 3 seeded Terriers, 66-45, at the 2024 Ingles Southern Conference Women’s Basketball Championships Thursday at Harrah’s Cherokee Center in Asheville, N.C.
Wofford advances to a SoCon Tournament semifinal game on Friday at 1:15 p.m. against No. 2 seed UNC Greensboro, which beat Furman, 64-44, earlier today.
Rose, one of five finalists for the Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year and a two-time conference Player of the Year, was limited to 12 points on five of 13 field goal shooting. The 5-7 junior guard from Scranton, PA led the Southern Conference in scoring (22.1), rebounding (8.7), assists (5.8) and free throw percentage (.875) during the regular season. While today’s point total tied for her lowest this season, she did contribute a game-high five assists.
Locked in a defensive struggle that ended in a 12-12 deadlock after one quarter, Samford seized a 19-15 lead when Alyssa Tarpley buried a three-point jumper with 8:05 left in the second quarter. However, Wofford proceeded to score 17 unanswered points in holding the Bulldog scoreless for more than eight minutes. Tarpley ended the drought with another three-pointer at the 46-second mark before halftime, as the Terriers assumed a commanding 32-22 lead at intermission.
The winning Terriers featured four scorers in double figures, with Maddie Heiss (18), Annabe Schultz (16), Indiya Clarke (10) joining Rose. Heiss, a freshman from Dallas, TX, threaded six of 11 field goal attempts and four of five from beyond the arc.
Wofford, which entered the game ranked ninth nationally in three-point percentage defense (.259), held the Bulldogs to 2-for-24 beyond the arc (.083). Conversely, the Terriers converted 42.9 percent (9-of-21) of their three-point tries
Lexi Pritchard and Tarpley led Samford in scoring with eight points each, while Emily Bowman–the No. 2 rebounder in the conference (8.5)--corralled a game-high eight rebounds for the Bulldogs.
RECORDS: No. 3 Wofford 17-12, No. 7 Samford 14-16
STATS TO KNOW
- Wofford and Samford split their two games during regular season
- With only 12 points today, Rachel Rose’s 20-point scoring streak ended at 11 games today. However, her double-digit scoring streak is now 48 in a row.
- Rose now owns 632 points on the season, topping the program record for single-season scoring. The mark was previously set by Jenny Nett (613) in the 2001-02 campaign.
No. 4 Mercer 67, No. 5 ETSU 52
Mercer, which arrived at the Southern Conference Women’s Basketball Championship Tournament with a losing record but No. 4 seeding, survived a gritty quarterfinal game against No. 5 seed Eastern Tennessee State, prevailing by a 67-52 score Thursday at Harrah’s Cherokee Center in Asheville N.C.
The Bears (15-16) advance to a SoCon Tournament semifinal game on Friday at 11 a.m. against No. 1 seed Chattanooga, which demolished Western Carolina, 64-43, earlier today.
Summah Evans, a senior from Cairns, Australia, led the Mercer scoring parade with a game-high 21 points, while Mackenzie Johnson added 16 points on 7-of-11 shooting and a game-high nine rebounds.
In clearly the most evenly-matched contest of the tournament’s first day, there were seven lead changes and four ties in the first half of action. Mercer, which wiped out a 26-23 deficit by scoring nine unanswered points in the half’s final four minutes,
left the floor leading 35-28 at intermission.
Mercer’s bench delivered 19 points in the first half, with graduate forward Johnson leading the charge with 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the field.
The Bears stretched the lead to 37-28 to open the second half, but ESTU stormed back with Breanne Beatty canning two clutch baskets during a 12-3 spree that knotted the score at 40-40 with 5:50 left in the third quarter. But Mercer would not be denied, responding with nine straight points to regain control and a 49-40 lead.
The Buccaneers (18-12) would never seriously challenge the rest of the game.
Meghan Downing, a 6-2 sophomore center, paced Eastern Tennessee State in scoring with 16 points and added eight rebounds. ETSU’s Nevaeh Brown, the conference’s No. 5 scorer (13.7 ppg) and an All-SoCon First Team pick this season, was limited to seven points on 2-of-7 shooting from the field.
RECORDS: No. 4 Mercer 15-16, No. 5 Eastern Tennessee State 18-12
STATS TO KNOW
- Despite its sub-.500 overall record, Mercer has won four straight and five of the last six games.
- ETSU has reached the SoCon Tournament Championship Game five times but have never won the tourney title. They did, however, claim the Atlantic Sun Tournament trophy three consecutive years (2008-2010),
- ETSU entered the tournament on a two-game losing streak which dropped them to the No. 5 seed.