Box Score Cullowhee, N.C. – The UNCG women's basketball team fell to 8-14 overall in a 84-72 road loss to Western Carolina (6-15) Saturday afternoon. The Spartans remain winless in SoCon slate with a 0-7 record while the Catamounts earned their second-consecutive league win improving to 2-5. UNCG continues its three-game stretch next week when the Spartans travel to Samford, February 4th at 4 p.m. and Mercer on the 6th at 2 p.m. for a pair of SoCon games.
Western Carolina scored off the opening tip-off and rushed out to an early 6-2 lead in the first minute and a half. UNCG took its largest lead of the quarter, by three, with 3:27 to play. The Spartans, backed by a team-best five points from Jade Scaife (Fort Washington, Md./Archbishop Spalding), trailed by two, 20-22 at the end of the frame. UNCG shot 38.0 percent from the field while WCU was 64.2 percent.
The Spartans were outscored by four points in the second quarter to trail by six points at halftime. Both India Timpton (Charlotte, N.C/Myers Park) and Shanese Harris (Chesapeake, Va./Western Branch) have five points each for UNCG. Western Carolina's Sherae Bonner led the way in the second quarter with six points shooting three-for-three from the field.
UNCG shot 37.8 percent in the first half and but made just 3-of-11 shots from downtown while The Catamounts shot 58.1 percent and connected on one-of-four attempts from behind the arc.
Lucy Mason (Stone Mountain, Ga./Chamblee Charter) led all scorers in the third frame shooting four-of-seven from the field for nine points. UNCG improved to shoot 45.4 percent in the quarter and outscored WCU 22-16 to erase the deficit and tie the game at 59-all with ten minutes to play. Western Carolina shot just 4-for-14 from the field in the period but made eight free throws on ten attempts.
The score would tie twice more and the lead changed three times before WCU slowly pulled away in the final minutes of the game. A three-minute scoring drought for the Spartans saw them fall behind by as many as seven with 2:35 to play. The Catamounts closed out the game on a 10-3 run to secure their second-straight SoCon win.
Mason had a game-high 20 points while Harris had her fourth-straight game scoring in double figures with 15 points. Scaife added 14 points and 10 rebounds for her team-leading fifth double-double of the season. Five members from WCU's squad scored in double figures with Bonner, Raziyah Farrington and Julia Brown all leading the team with 14 points each.
Western Carolina leads the all-time series 36-25 and has won the last ten meetings. The two teams will meet again February 27 at 2 p.m. in Fleming Gymnasium in the final game of the regular season.
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