GREENSBORO, NC – Gini Grimsley scored a career-high 22 points to lead UNC Greensboro to a dominating 84-64 victory over Wofford in Southern Conference women’s basketball action Tuesday night at Fleming Gym.
Grimsley, a freshman out of Fairmont, NC, led UNCG (9-9, 5-4 SoCon) to its third win in a row by converting 8-of-9 shots from the field, including four 3-pointers, in only 19 minutes off the bench. Sophomore guard Kristen Boone scored 18 points and handed out a game-high seven assists. Sophomore guard Kemena Brooks added 12 points from the bench, while junior forward Kaleah Latham tossed in 11 points had a team-leading seven rebounds.
Nakia Mister, Summer Nichols and Kate Dempsey each had 10 points to lead Wofford (5-13, 1-8 SoCon). Mary Jo Yee added nine points for the Terriers, who have now lost three straight games.
The Spartans shot 55.9 percent (19-of-34) from the floor in the second half after leading 36-25 at halftime. UNCG was up by 10 points, 44-34, at the 15:04 mark when the club put together 17-5 run that pushed the Spartans lead up to 61-39 by the 10:17 mark of the second half.
Wofford never got any closer than 19 points the rest of the way, while the Spartans increased their lead to 84-59 on the second of two free throws by Latham with 1:09 left to play. Boone, the native of Upper Marlboro, MD, scored 12 of her 18 points in the second half, while Brooks, her high school teammate and Accokeek, MD native, scored 10 of her 12 points after the intermission.
UNCG broke a 5-5 tie early in the first half with an 8-2 run to take a 13-7 lead at the 11:20 mark. Sophomore forward Jasmine Dixon began the run with a free throw and freshman guard Ashley Ling capped it with one of her own from the charity stripe. Wofford would answer with an 8-2 run of its own to square things at 15-15 at the 7:44 mark.
After Yee drained a 3-pointer to give the Terriers a 21-19 advantage, the Spartans closed the half on a 17-6 spurt that sent them into halftime leading for the fifth straight game, 36-25. Grimsley scored seven straight points in the final 1:17 of the half and junior guard Jasmine Byrd buried a mid-range jumper as the buzzer sounded to lead the Spartans.
The combination of UNCG‘s 25-14 rebounding advantage and Grimsley’s 12 points gave the Spartans a cushion heading to the second half of play.
For the game, UNCG held a 42-31 advantage off the glass and shot 50.0 percent from the field. Byrd, who scored nine points on the evening, became just the fourth player in school history to have 100 career 3-pointers.
The win gave UNCG head coach Lynne Agee her 100th career victory in the SoCon, becoming just the third women’s basketball coach to do so. Chattanooga’s Wes Moore and Georgia Southern’s Rusty Cram are the two others.
UNCG begins a two-game conference road swing on Saturday at Davidson beginning at 2 pm in Davidson, NC. Meanwhile, Wofford is in the midst of a three-game road trek and will take on SoCon foe Western Carolina on Saturday at 5 pm.
GAME NOTES: Jasmine Byrd notched the 100th 3-pointer of her career at the 4:53 mark of the second half... UNCG entered the game with an RPI of 172 according to collegerpi.com, which is the third best in the SoCon... Wofford was at 318... The Spartans used the same starting lineup for the eighth straight game... Kristen Boone entered the game second in the county in steals (4.9 per game) and had three... Gini Grimsley made the first eight shots she took from the floor and both free throws, before missing a 3-pointer at the 8:38 mark of the second half... Grimsley’s previous career-high was 15 points against Longwood (11/25/05)... UNCG has won three straight for the second time this season.
AGATE
UNC GREENSBORO 84, WOFFORD 64
WOFFORD (5-13, 1-8 SoCon)
DEMPSEY, Kate 5-6 0-0 10; MISTER, Nakia 4-7 2-2 10; NICHOLS, Summer
2-6 6-6 10; MILLER, Liz 3-8 1-2 9; YEE, Mary Jo 3-7 0-0 9; KOENIG,
Kelsi 2-8 3-5 7; STRONG, LaToya 1-4 0-0 3; DEPKO, Laura 1-2 0-1 2;
CORRELL, K.C. 1-4 0-0 2; WEURDING, Jenny 1-2 0-0 2; PAUL, Susanna
0-2 0-0 0. Totals 23-56 12-16 64.
UNC GREENSBORO (9-9, 5-4 SoCon)
GRIMSLEY, Gini 8-9 2-2 22; BOONE, Kristen 7-13 4-4 18; BROOKS,
Kemena 5-6 2-2 12; LATHAM, KaLeah 4-9 3-4 11; BYRD, Jasmine 4-12
0-2 9; LING, Ashley 2-2 1-2 5; CHAMBERLAIN, Meghan 2-6 0-0 4;
DIXON, Jasmine 1-4 1-3 3; BLAIR, Caroline 0-1 0-0 0; CURRENT,
Ashley 0-2 0-0 0; MULLINS, Ashley 0-1 0-0 0; JACKSON, Shanika 0-0
0-0 0; OTAMIRI, Irene 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 33-66 13-19 84.
Halftime: UNC Greensboro 36-26. 3-point goals-Wofford 6-15 (YEE, Mary Jo 3-7; MILLER, Liz 2-4; STRONG, LaToya 1-1; KOENIG, Kelsi 0-2; CORRELL, K.C. 0-1), UNC Greensboro 5-14 (GRIMSLEY, Gini 4-5; BYRD, Jasmine 1-5; BROOKS, Kemena 0-1; DIXON, Jasmine 0-1; OTAMIRI, Irene 0-1; BOONE, Kristen 0-1). Fouled out--Wofford-None, UNC Greensboro-None. Rebounds-Wofford 31 (KOENIG, Kelsi 7), UNC Greensboro 42 (LATHAM, KaLeah 7). Assists-Wofford 10 (MISTER, Nakia 3; MILLER, Liz 3), UNC Greensboro 19 (BOONE, Kristen 7). Total fouls-Wofford 20, UNC Greensboro 21. A-170.
- UNCG -