GREENSBORO, NC – KaLeah Latham scored a season-high 17 points and added seven rebounds and UNC Greensboro closed the game on a 10-1 run to defeat Coastal Carolina, 64-54, Saturday afternoon in women’s basketball action at Fleming Gymnasium.
Senior Jasmine Byrd added 11 points, while Irene Otamiri and Brittany Frazier each added six rebounds. With the win head coach Lynne Agee picked up her 498th win of her UNCG tenure.
The Spartans (5-3) were coming off of a 12-day layoff for final exams, but picked up their ninth consecutive victory at Fleming and snapped a two-game losing skid in the process.
Coastal senior guard Alisha Dills, who entered the game second in the nation in scoring at better than 24 points per game, had 27 points to lead Coastal Carolina. Junior guard Vanessa Laug was Coastal’s next leading scorer with just six points.
“Coming off of a long break it was nice to get back out on the court,” Agee said.” KaLeah played great for us today. She really stepped up for us in a big way. Kamena Brooks also had a big play that really changed the game for us. It was good to get the win.”
Brooks’ “big play” came with 1:25 left when she scored on a rebound off of a missed three-pointer by Kristen Boone. Boone fired up a 25-footer as the shot clock was about to expire. The horn went off while the ball was in flight, with the ball hitting the back of the rim. Coastal Carolina players froze when the horn went off. However Brooks, not hearing an officials’ whistle, grabbed the ball for the putback to give UNCG a six-point lead.
The Spartans shot 23-for-59 from the floor, good for 39 percent, and shot 76.2 percent from the charity stripe. Latham and Brooks were both perfect from the stripe with Latham going 7-of-7 and Brooks shooting 4-for-4.
Coastal (5-3), which has never won in six trips to Fleming Gym, stormed out to a 6-0 lead to open the game behind quick buckets by Laug and Dill, but the Spartans stormed back on a pair of buckets by senior guard Jasmine Byrd to cut the lead to two. The teams traded buckets throughout the first half with the Spartans taking a 30-28 lead into the break.
The Spartans extended their lead to four early in the second half with two consecutive jumpers by Boone but Coastal hit three free throws in their next two possessions to cut the lead to one at the 16:51 mark.
Both teams went without a field goal for the next three minutes but Dill hit a trey to give Coastal a 36-34 lead, its first lead since the 5:34 mark of the first half. However, the Chanticleers could not gain a lead of more than three.
The teams again went back and forth with neither team gaining more than a four-point advantage until late in the game when UNCG pulled away after Brooks’ heads-up play, which was part of a 10-1 run to close out the contest.
UNCG, which has now won 14 straight when holding opponents under 60 points, plays its second game of a three-game homestand when it faces backyard-rival High Point Monday night at 7 pm.
AGATE
UNCG 64, COASTAL CAROLINA 54
COASTAL CAROLINA (5-3)
DILL, Alisha 9-22 4-6 27; WARE, C.J. 3-7 0-0 6; LAUG, Vanessa 2-7
1-2 5; STULL, Amanda 2-5 1-2 5; YATES, Calisha 1-3 1-2 4;
BLANCHARD, Victoria 2-6 0-0 4; RIVERS, Devin 1-4 1-2 3; YURICHAK,
Kristy 0-0 0-0 0; PEKONEN, Joanna 0-0 0-0 0; LYONS, Lacey 0-4 0-0
0. Totals 20-58 8-14 54.
UNCG (5-3)
Latham, Kaleah 5-7 7-7 17; Byrd, Jasmine 4-10 2-4 11; Brooks,
Kemena 2-5 4-4 8; Frazier, Brittany 4-8 0-0 8; Boone, Kristen 3-8
0-0 6; Chamberlain, Meghan 3-5 0-0 6; Grimsley, Gini 1-4 0-2 3;
Dixon, Jasmine 0-2 3-4 3; Otamiri, Irene 1-6 0-0 2; Ling, Ashley
0-3 0-0 0; Hyson, Lakiah 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 23-59 16-21 64.
Halftime: UNCG 30-28. 3-point goals--Coastal Carolina 6-16 (DILL, Alisha 5-11; YATES, Calisha 1-2; LYONS, Lacey 0-3), UNCG 2-10 (Byrd, Jasmine 1-5; Grimsley, Gini 1-1; Boone, Kristen 0-1; Dixon, Jasmine 0-1; Otamiri, Irene 0-1; Ling, Ashley 0-1). Fouled out--Coastal Carolina-None, UNCG-None. Rebounds--Coastal Carolina 32 (WARE, C.J. 8), UNCG 47 (Latham, Kaleah 7). Assists--Coastal Carolina 10 (WARE, C.J. 4), UNCG 12 (Frazier, Brittany 2; Byrd, Jasmine 2; Ling, Ashley 2; Otamiri, Irene 2). Total fouls--Coastal Carolina 18, UNCG 12. Technical fouls--Coastal Carolina-None, UNCG-None. A-157
- UNCG -