Cold Shooting Dooms Women's Basketball in SAC Final

HICKORY, NC -- Catawba shot a miserable 23% for the game and Wingate took advantage hitting nearly half of its own while capturing the Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Tournament Championship 65-41 Sunday night at the Tarlton Complex at CVCC. Wingate is now 22-7 overall as the Lady Indians fall to 19-10.

The lack-luster shooting performance started early for the Lady Indians as they missed their first nine attempts from the field. Meanwhile, the Bulldog hit 4-of-5 to start the game, three of those being from long range, and continued to roll throughout the contest as Catawba could never get going.

Sarah Wollet canned two treys and Simone Rutledge one to give Wingate an 11-4 advantage at the 13:20 mark of the first half. Catawba did not make its initial basket until Taylor May (China Grove, NC/S. Rowan HS) had hit a jumper thirty seconds earlier.

Catawba, which relies heavily on the three-point shot, went 0-for-11 from beyond the arc in the first 20 minutes as Chloe Bully (Hannut, BELGIUM/Namur HS) and Nisha Long (Dallas, NC/Gaston Day HS) were both 0-for-4. The Lady Indians finished the half shooting just 14% with seven turnovers and one assist.

Kurie Washington hit the Bulldog’s fourth three-pointer late in the half as they went into intermission with a 25-15 lead.

Dana Hicks (York, SC/Gaston Day HS) hit a layup at 13:45 in the second half to get the Lady Indians under double-digits at 31-22, but that would be as close as they would come with their shooting struggles ever-present.

Wingate again hit three bombs within a two-minute span to distance itself from the opposition. This time it was Janitsha Williams draining two of them and Wollet the other to push their lead to 42-27 midway through the second half. Williams led Wingate with 16 points while Wollet had 10.

The Bulldogs achieved their biggest lead of 65-39 on a layup by Sarah Burnick with just under a minute remaining. Wingate outscored Catawba 28-14 in the paint while bench points were 34-8 in favor of the Bulldogs.

Bully tallied 14 points for the Lady Indians and Hicks finished with 11 rebounds and 11 points as both were named to the All-Tournament team.

The Lady Indians wait to see if they are going to the post-season as the top eight ranked teams in each region advance to the Division II playoffs.  Catawba was ranked ninth before the SAC tournament began. Wingate receives an automatic bid to the Southeast Regional Tournament next weekend.