SALISBURY, N.C. — Brooklin Ingram and Mary Spry scored 18 points apiece as Catawba College defeated Tusculum University 65-55 in South Atlantic Conference women’s basketball Saturday afternoon at Goodman Arena.
Ingram added 11 rebounds while Spry had six boards and went 8-for-8 at the foul line for the Indians (8-13, 6-10 SAC), who snapped a five-game losing streak and remained tied for eighth place in the SAC standings with Newberry with six games left in the regular season.
Abbi Douglas led the Pioneers (2-20, 2-14 SAC) with 16 points and Ema Nagyova posted 12 points and a career-high seven rebounds for Tusculum, which shot 34.7 percent (17-for-49) from the field and turned the ball over 20 times which led to 24 points for the Indians.
Catawba shot just 31.0 percent (22-for-71) from the field as a team, but went 12-for-12 at the foul line in the fourth quarter and had 16 offensive rebounds that resulted in 13 second-chance points. The Indians outrebounded the Pioneers 46-39 and had just eight turnovers as a team in the game.
Ingram shot 5-for-16 on three-pointers in the game for Catawba, which was 8-for-29 (27.6 percent) from deep as a team. Nagyova connected on four three-pointers on 11 attempts for the Pioneers, while Aisha Patel was 3-for-5 from long range and finished with 11 points off the Tusculum bench.
Neither team led by more than three points in the first quarter, with the teams tied six times before a late jumper from Makayla Stokes gave Catawba an 18-16 lead at the end of the first period.
After Catawba scored the first five points of the second quarter, the Pioneers went on a 15-5 run over a span of six minutes. Nagyova hit a pair of threes and Julia Szwichtenberg had four points during the surge, which sent the Pioneers to halftime holding a 31-29 lead.
Nagyova was 3-for-6 on three-pointers and finished with nine points int he first half for the Pioneers, while Douglas had six points and four rebounds. Tusculum shot 45.8 percent (11-for-24) from the field but turned the ball over 12 times in the half. Ingram had a team-high nine points in the first half for the Indians, who were 12-for-36 (33.3 percent) from the field and just 4-for-16 from three-point range.
Tusculum would go nearly seven minutes without a field goal to start the third quarter, as an 11-0 run gave Catawba a 40-31 lead with 5:57 left in the period. Patel hit two three-pointers for the Pioneers in the third, but the rest of the team was 0-for-9 from the field during the quarter as Catawba went up 46-38 heading to the fourth.
Catawba looked poised to put the game away as a 7-0 run gave the Indians their largest lead at 59-46 with 3:40 remaining. Tusculum would respond with eight straight points, with a three-pointer from Angela Gomez cutting the margin to 59-54 with 1:16 remaining. However, Catawba would go 6-for-6 from the line in the final 34 seconds while Tusculum managed just a free throw from Douglas with 29 seconds remaining.
Gomez had eight points along with four rebounds and seven assists in 40 minutes for the Pioneers, while Szwichtenberg had six points and a season-high eight rebounds in 22 minutes. Patel had four rebounds to go along with her 11 points off the bench for the Pioneers, her fourth double-figure scoring game of the season. Sheree Gidney had six points on 3-for-13 shooting along with four rebounds in 24 minutes for the Indians, with six points along with five rebounds from Saniya Wilson.
Tusculum will play its next three games at Pioneer Arena, starting on Wednesday, Feb. 11 at 5:30 p.m. against Mars Hill. The Lions (4-18, 1-15 SAC) saw their losing streak reach 15 games with a 70-62 loss at Coker on Saturday, a slide that includes a 71-63 Tusculum victory at Mars Hill back on Dec. 17 in the first meeting of the season. Listen on 95.5FM WSMG beginning at 5:15pm.
