CLINTON, S.C. – The Presbyterian women's basketball team
picked up its second straight win in the Big South Conference with a Monday
night victory over UNC Asheville at the Templeton Center, 62-54.
PC evens its record to 8-8 and 2-3 in league play, while UNC
Asheville drops to 6-11 and 2-4 in conference action. The win marks the third straight for PC over UNC Asheville, the longest active streak over any Big South opponent for the Blue Hose.
Sherece Smith (Clemson, S.C.) grabbed 15 rebounds, a new
career high for the sophomore and the most in a single game by a Blue Hose
since Chelsea Wright accomplished the feat against Charleston Southern on March
5, 2010. The effort matches Wright's 15 as the second-most in a single game in PC's Division I
era. Smith also set a new career high water mark with six assists.
Mariah Pietrowski (Elizabethton, Tenn.) led PC in scoring
with 16 points, matching UNC Asheville's Shonese Jones for the game-high.
Karlee Taylor (Asheville, N.C.) added 14 points and Dria David (Lawrenceville,
Ga.) scored 12 while Shonda Burnside (Gray Court, S.C.) set a new season-best
with 11.
PC earned the win on the defensive end, forcing the Bulldogs
to shoot 34 percent from the floor (18-for-53) and turn the ball over 19 times.
The Blue Hose blocked seven shots and scored 23 points off of turnovers.
UNC Asheville opened the first half with a three-pointer by
Grace Blaylock but that would be the only lead the Bulldogs would hold as PC
quickly used free throws by Pietrowski and a lay-up by Devin Fothergill (Somerset,
Ky.) to go up 4-3 with 17:54 to go before intermission.
The Blue Hose out-scored the Bulldogs, 18-7, the next six
and a half minutes, based largely on an eight point effort from Burnside during
the stretch, and led 22-10 at the 11:31 mark.
After dropping its lead to seven off a three-pointer by Asheville's Blaylock at 10:25, the Blue Hose went back up to 12 off a three-pointer
by Taylor with 8:42 left before intermission.
The Bulldogs rattled off 10 unanswered points over the next
four minutes of action to cut the PC lead to just two, 27-25, with 4:36 on the
clock. The Blue Hose responded with an
offensive explosion of their own, this one an 11-1 run that gave PC its
12-point lead again, 38-26 at the break.
Highlighting the run were back-to-back three pointers by Taylor, two of
her four in the half.
PC opened up a 14-point lead early in the second half, 42-28
with 17:59 left, but went cold for a five minute spell, letting the Bulldogs
back in the game with a 13-2 run to cut the margin to three, 44-41 with 12:17
remaining.
The Blue Hose rebounded with nine unanswered points over the
next seven minutes to take a 53-41 lead with 5:18 left. PC and Asheville traded baskets with the Bulldogs,
able to maintain a double-digit lead until Leah Wormack and Shonese Jones
helped the visitors claw back within five with 59 seconds remaining.
PC took advantage of Bulldog fouls to stop the clock and
sealed the win down the stretch, 62-54.
PC is next in action in Lynchburg, Va., Saturday, Jan. 21 at
2 p.m., as the Blue Hose take on Liberty at the Vines Center.
