CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - Senior forward Alex Anderson (Stone Mountain, Ga.) poured in a season-high 27 points on 11-of-20 shooting to lead Chattanooga (7-3, 1-0) to a 61-51 victory over Furman (3-6, 0-2) Thursday evening in Southern Conference women's basketball action at The McKenzie Arena.
After recovering from an 11-point deficit in the first half to take a narrow 31-29 lead at the break, Chattanooga stepped up its play in the second half, opening with a 9-2 run and extending to a 40-31 advantage with 17:05 to play. The Paladins answered back with an 8-1 run of their own to close the gap to 41-39 at the 13:44 mark. That would be as close as they would get as the Lady Mocs put the game out of reach with an 11-2 run fueled by nine points from Anderson to push their lead to 52-41 with 8:54 to play.
From there, Chattanooga would not allow Furman any closer than seven points the rest of the way as they closed out the 61-51 victory.
In the first half, the Paladins jumped out to an early 12-1 lead with only 3:56 gone by. Trailing 18-7, the Lady Mocs responded with a 16-3 run behind eight points from junior forward Erin Ogan (Knoxville, Tenn.), including two three-pointers, to take the lead, 23-21, with 5:13 remaining in the half.
A brief rally by Furman knotted the score at 25-25 before Chattanooga closed out the half with a 31-29 lead.
In addition to her fifth 20-plus point game this season, Anderson added six rebounds, two assists, two steals and two blocks to lead the way for Chattanooga while Ogan posted a career-high 13 points to go along with seven rebounds. Sophomore forward Shanara Hollinquest (Sylacauga, Ala.) added nine points and senior guard Laura Hall (Oliver Springs, Tenn.) finished with a game-high five assists.
Senior guard Chrissy Phelps led the way for the Paladins with a team-high 11 points and added seven rebounds while sophomore guard Kali Holtfreter rounded out the double-figure scorers with 10 points. Junior center Katie Johnson added eight points and a game-high eight rebounds.
The Lady Mocs return to action on Saturday, December 20 when they travel to Cullowhee, N.C., to take on the 2006-07 conference co-champs Western Carolina for a 7:00 p.m. contest.
NOTES
With her six rebounds and two blocks Alex Anderson now has 175 career blocks and 802 career rebounds ... Anderson's 27 points is a season-high and is the fifth time this season she has compiled 20 or more points ... with her five assists, Laura Hall has 354 assists for her career ... Ogan's career-high 13 points surpasses her previous career mark of 12 points set against Davidson on February 6, 2006 and is her second double-digit scoring output this season ... the Lady Mocs improve to 33-20 over the Paladins all-time ... the win gives Wes Moore 143 in the Southern Conference.
