ELON, NC – Despite a slow start, the UNC Greensboro women’s basketball team topped Southern Conference rival Elon, 57-48 to extend their win streak to five on Saturday afternoon at Alumni Gym.
UNCG (19-8, 12-4) was led by senior KaLeah Latham, who finished with a game-high 18 points on 8-for-12 shooting from the field. The Athens, TN native also tallied eight rebounds. Junior Kristen Boone followed with 12 points and three assists, while junior Brittany Frazier grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds.
“I am very pleased with the way we played the inside game,” stated head coach Lynne Agee. “Although we are now a lot smaller in the paint without Meghan (Chamberlain), our post game did an excellent job and played great for us. Our transition game was also strength for us today and gave us some good spurts.”
Tiffany Davis was the only Elon player in double figures with 10 points. Nikko King added eight points along with 10 rebounds.
The Phoenix (10-17, 4-12) opened the game by going on a 6-0 run and forced the Spartans to go 0-for-8 from the field. Latham's bucket at 15:05, the first of the game for the Spartans, sparked an 8-2 run for UNCG that tied the score up at eight a piece.
The two squads exchanged a handful of buckets before Frazier put UNCG up 16-15 for its first lead of the game. The Spartans continued to build their lead by going on a 10-0 run that included four points from junior Jasmine Dixon. Buckets by Gini Grimsley, Boone and Jasmine Byrd pushed the Spartans’ lead to 35-22, their largest lead of the half. UNCG only allowed six points in the final two minutes of the half and went into the locker room with the 25-23 advantage.
Elon came out and scored the first points of the second half but UNCG answered back with two buckets from Latham and one from Frasier to extend their lead 41-25 with less than 16 minutes left in the game.
However, Elon used a pair of buckets and Spartan turnovers to close the gap to nine with 10:12 left on the clock. The Spartans responded with a 9-2 run, fueled by eight points from Latham, to give UNCG a 15-point advantage. Elon cut the gap to eight but were unable get any closer as UNCG went on to win its fifth consecutive game.
The Spartans finished the game shooting 39.6 percent on 21-for-53 shooting from the floor. The Phoenix went 31 percent from the field on 18-for-58 from the field. UNCG out rebounded Elon by a slim 45-40 and tallied 28 points in the paint to Elon’s 20.
UNCG will host Wofford on Monday night in Fleming Gymnasium. The Spartans will honor their three seniors before the 7 pm start.
AGATE
UNC GREENSBORO 57, ELON 48
UNC GREENSBORO (19-8, 12-4 SoCon)
LATHAM,KALEAH 8-12 2-3 18; BOONE,KRISTEN 3-8 6-8 12; DIXON, Jasmine
2-4 3-4 8; GRIMSLEY,GINI 2-3 2-2 6; BYRD,JASMINE 2-10 0-0 5;
FRAZIER,BRITTANY 2-10 0-0 4; BROOKS,KEMENA 1-3 0-0 2; OTAMIRI,
Irene 1-3 0-0 2; LING,ASHLEY 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-53 13-17 57.
ELON (10-17,4-12 SoCon)
DAVIS, Tiffany 4-10 0-1 10; KING, Nikko 4-9 0-1 8; COTTON, Urysla
2-2 3-4 7; BUMBREY, Tierra 1-10 4-7 6; WHIDDEN, Katie 2-5 2-4 6;
ALLISON, Nicole 3-13 0-0 6; HESTER, Rachel 1-3 0-0 3; MOORE,
Shashonna 1-4 0-0 2; SITZ, Carole 0-0 0-0 0; SPEARS, Shamica 0-1
0-2 0; WALL, Amber 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 18-58 9-19 48.
Halftime: UNCG, 35-23. 3-point goals--UNC Greensboro 2-10 (DIXON, Jasmine 1-2; BYRD,JASMINE 1-5; OTAMIRI, Irene 0-1; BOONE,KRISTEN 0-2), Elon 3-14 (DAVIS, Tiffany 2-3; HESTER, Rachel 1-3; BUMBREY, Tierra 0-4; ALLISON, Nicole 0-4). Fouled out--UNC Greensboro-None, Elon-DAVIS, Tiffany. Rebounds--UNC Greensboro 45 (FRAZIER,BRITTANY 11), Elon 40 (KING, Nikko 10). Assists--UNC Greensboro 11 (BOONE,KRISTEN 3; BYRD,JASMINE 3), Elon 9 (BUMBREY, Tierra 4). Total fouls--UNC Greensboro 16, Elon 16. Technical fouls--UNC Greensboro-None, Elon-None. A-215
- UNCG -