COLUMBUS, Ga. — Catawba College’s women’s basketball team fell 80-64 to Francis Marion in the NCAA Division II South Atlantic Regional semifinals here Friday night.
Catawba, which won the South Atlantic Conference regular-season and tournament titles, finished the winningest season in school history with a 25-5 record.
No. 3 seed Francis Marion (24-6) advances to the regional finals for the fourth straight year, facing the Columbus State-North Carolina Central winner at 7 p.m. today.
Christy Thomas scored 17 points for Francis Marion’s Patriots, while Christy Wright and Anna Kolbinsky added 13 apiece.
Catawba’s Lady Indians were led by Lakai Brice’s game-high 23 points and Donna Carr’s 19 points and 11 rebounds.
Francis Marion took a 38-32 halftime lead on the strength of 16-for-29 (55.2 percent) field goal shooting.
Catawba shot only 41.2 percent, but stayed close with 10 offensive rebounds.
Coach John Duncan’s Lady Indians outscored the Patriots 12-6 to start the second half, tying the score at 44-all with 11:25 remaining. Then Catawba went cold.
Francis Marion went on a 10-0 run to take a 54-44 lead with 8:12 remaining and eventually won by 16.
“Francis Marion was prepared,” said coach Duncan. “We got in some early foul trouble, as aggressive as we were on defense, and let them get some easy baskets. They also got a lot of second-chance opportunities at key times.
“In the second half we might have pressed too hard. I don’t know if anxiety set in with our first regional appearance, or what, but we were rushing our shots. That’s not an excuse. We just didn’t play well.”
Carr, a former Salisbury High School star who transferred to Catawba from the University of South Carolina, said, “We were always in a position to get back in the game, but we took some bad shots down the stretch.”
Catawba shot only 39.4 percent for the game.
FRANCIS MARION (80) — Ammons 10, Rowland 5, Johnson 10, Thomas 17, Wright 13, McIntosh 3, Gioscia 2, McDaniel 2, Kolbinsky 13, Tecson, Hutchens 2, Hensley 1, Tincher 2.
CATAWBA (64) — Locklear, Little 9, Carr 19, Pasola 9, Brice 23, Stockton, Puloitaival, Powell 2, Buckland 2, Timola.
Francis Marion 38 42 — 80
Catawba 32 32 — 64
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