GREENVILLE, SC – Furman scored the last five points of the game to earn the Southern Conference Tournament’s No. 7 seed and a 59-55 win over UNC Greensboro in women’s basketball action Saturday afternoon.
The Lady Paladins (10-19, 5-13) will face Wofford in an opening round game on Thursday at the North Charleston Coliseum, while UNCG (6-23, 4-14) will be seeded ninth and take on eighth-seeded Appalachian State. The Furman-Wofford game tips off at 3 pm, followed by the UNCG-Appalachian State game at approximately 5:30 pm. In both of those match-ups, the teams split their regular season meetings, all winning on their respective homecourts. Furman won the tie-breaker over Appalachian State by virtue of its win over third-seeded Davidson on Monday.
Lee Stephens led all scorers with 14 points for Furman. Sara Baker added 11 points and Kendra Berry chipped in with 10, including four of the final five.
UNCG’s Jasmine Dixon had a team-high 11 points to go with six rebounds in her final game at Fleming Gym. Freshman Monique Floyd added 10 points and six boards off the bench. UNCG was victimized by 22 turnovers on the day. Furman finished with 13 turnovers, including just three in the second half.
UNCG senior Brittany Frazier gave the Spartans a two-point lead with 2:09 to play – the last field goal of the day for the Spartans. Both teams missed shots on their next possession. Furman’s Melissa Liebschwager missed a trey from left corner with 1:21 to go, but Stephens stole the ball at mid-court and was fouled with 1:08 to play. She made both free throws to tie game, 54-54.
UNCG’s Ashley Ling drove to the basket and drew a foul with 55.1 seconds to play. Ling missed the first, but made the second to give UNCG a 55-54 lead. Furman responded, however, when Berry hit a shot in the lane with 38 seconds left to give the Lady Paladins the lead for good, 56-55. UNCG called a timeout with 34 seconds left to set up a play, but Frazier missed in the lane and Dixon fouled on the loose ball rebound with 20.4 second left. Berry connected on both of those free throws to make it a three-point lead.
Following another UNCG timeout, Gini Grimsley missed a long three-pointer with nine seconds left and Stephens was fouled on the rebound. The Spartans looked to maybe get one more crack at it when Stephens missed the first free throw, but she knocked down the second to put the game away.
Crashing the boards right from the outset, UNCG jumped out to an early lead. The Spartans had an 11-3 advantage on the board in the first eight minutes of the contest and that equated into a UNCG 13-8 lead. But following a Furman timeout, the Lady Paladins went on a 9-2 run to regain the lead, 17-15, midway through the half.
Furman extended the lead to six before taking a 30-25 lead into the break. After the early rebounding advantage by the Spartans, Furman held its own on the glass to take a lead into the intermission.
The Spartans turned it up on the defensive end to open the second half. Holding the Paladins scoreless for the first five minutes, UNCG went on an 8-0 run to take a 33-30 lead.
Neither team took a lead of more than five after that. UNCG, which led 37-32 with 13:11 to play, still had a three-point lead before Furman scored five straight to take a 49-47 lead with four minutes left. But two Monique Floyd free throws broke the spurt and knotted the score up once again.
AGATE
FURMAN 59, UNCG 55
FURMAN (10-19, 5-13)
STEPHENS, Lee 4-12 5-6 14; BAKER, Sarah 4-5 0-0 11; BERRY, Kendra
3-4 4-4 10; LIEBSCHWAGER, Meliss 2-5 0-0 6; HOLTFRETER, Kali 2-6
0-0 5; OPIE, Courtney 2-3 0-0 4; PHELPS, Chrissy 1-6 1-2 4;
JOHNSON, Katie 1-7 1-2 3; GILMORE, Adrienne 1-4 0-2 2; AGIN, Katie
0-1 0-0 0. Totals 20-53 11-16 59.
UNCG (6-23, 4-14)
DIXON,Jasmine 3-4 5-7 11; FLOYD,Monique 3-7 4-4 10; BROOKS,Kemena
3-9 1-1 8; HYSON,Lakiah 2-4 3-4 7; GRIMSLEY,Gini 3-9 0-0 7;
CHAMBERLAIN,Meghan 3-4 0-0 6; FRAZIER,Brittany 2-6 1-2 5;
LING,Ashley 0-2 1-2 1; GIRSTAUTAITE,Agne 0-0 0-0 0; SMITH,Kendra
0-0 0-0 0; MULLINS,Ashley 0-1 0-0 0; BANNER,TaShama 0-3 0-0 0.
Totals 19-49 15-20 55.
Halftime: Furman 30-25. 3-point goals--Furman 8-19 (BAKER, Sarah 3-3; LIEBSCHWAGER, Meliss 2-4; STEPHENS, Lee 1-4; HOLTFRETER, Kali 1-5; PHELPS, Chrissy 1-2; GILMORE, Adrienne 0-1), UNCG 2-12 (BROOKS,Kemena 1-5; GRIMSLEY,Gini 1-5; MULLINS,Ashley 0-1; BANNER,TaShama 0-1). Fouled out--Furman-None, UNCG-None. Rebounds--Furman 27 (JOHNSON, Katie 7), UNCG 40 (FRAZIER,Brittany 7). Assists--Furman 10 (PHELPS, Chrissy 6), UNCG 12 (HYSON,Lakiah 4). Total fouls--Furman 17, UNCG 18. Technical fouls--Furman-None, UNCG-None. A-350
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