The Presbyterian College women's basketball team rallied from several UNC Asheville double-digit leads throughout the game, including late in the second half, but could not overcome cold shooting down the stretch to fall to the Bulldogs, 59-46, in Big South action Saturday afternoon at Kimmel Arena in Asheville, N.C.
The Blue Hose drop to 11-10 overall and 6-6 in the Big South, while the Bulldogs improve to 6-15, 5-7. PC is next in action Monday, Feb. 2 at Gardner-Webb in a 7 p.m. contest. Asheville travels to Charleston Southern, Feb. 2.
Keyonna Allen led the Blue Hose, with 13 points, including a lay-up at 15:04 that helped trim the Bulldog lead to just one, 6-7. UNC Asheville scored five unanswered to build a six-point lead, before two free throws by Elizabeth Landers made it 12-8, with 13:00 left on the clock. That would be the last points for PC for almost four minutes as the Bulldogs used a 6-0 run to make it 18-8.
Aianna Kelly hit her first of eight points on the afternoon with a basket at 9:30, to cut the lead to just eight, 18-10. Asheville responded with 10 straight to take its largest lead of the half, 28-10, 4:46 to go.
PC offense began to click the final four and a half minutes, as the team scored the next nine, which included a three from Allie Wagner at 1:53, to cut the lead to single digits, 28-19, with under a minute to go.
Asheville's Tiffany Wilson, who led the team with 10 points, stopped the Bulldog drought with 37 ticks left, but it was PC with the final four points of the half to make it a seven-point game at the half, 30-23.
UNC Asheville opened the second half with Shonese Jones hitting her second three-pointer of the afternoon, as part of her team-leading 10 points, before the Blue Hose rattled off six to cut the lead to four, 33-29, 15:18 remaining.
Leading by six, with just under 12 minutes to go, UNC Asheville used two three-pointers by Tacey Trammell to take a double-digit lead for the first time of the second half, 43-33, 10:38 remaining. Trammel added another three at the 8:20 mark as the Bulldogs took one of their largest leads of the game, 46-33. Janie Miles, who finished the game with 11 points, made it a 10-point game again about a minute later with her first three-pointer of the afternoon.
With 2:41 on the clock Miles hit her second three to cut the Asheville lead to eight, 52-44. Blue Hose scoring went cold after that as they hit just one more basket down the stretch, with the Bulldogs converting all but one free throw during that span to come away with the 59-46 win.
PC shot 40.0% for the game, compared to 39.3% for Asheville. The Bulldogs converted six three-pointers, including four in the second half, while the Blue Hose hit three, two coming from Miles. Asheville controlled the boards, 41-23, including a 20-7 margin on the offensive side, resulting in 17 second-chance points. Turnovers were fairly even, with UNC Asheville finishing with one more, 15-14.
Kelly led PC with five rebounds, while K.J. Weaver paced UNC Asheville with nine.
