By David Shaw

sports@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — The last thing the reeling Catawba women’s basketball team needed Saturday was another dose of South Atlantic Conference tough love.

But that’s exactly what the Lady Indians left Goodman Gym with after suffering their fifth straight defeat, this one a 74-69 overtime loss to visiting Anderson.

“I thought we showed some promise today,” coach Angie Morton said afterward, her smile masking disappointment. “If we had just made some of our layups, it might have been different. Sometimes that comes from confidence, sometimes from fatigue. But I felt like we got the ball in the right hands at the right time.”

Catawba (13-10, 10-8) continued to struggle with accuracy, shooting just 29.3 percent from the field and making only one of seven shots in overtime. Junior forward Terri Rogers (24 points, 18 rebounds) recorded her ninth double-double of the season for the Indians and teammate Serena Brown contributed 15 points and seven assists.

“We fought a lot harder today than we have in a long, long time,” Rogers said after grabbing 11 offensive rebounds, mostly on missed layups. “We’re just not hitting our shots. It’s just tough right now.”

Anderson (17-5, 14-4), the league’s third-place team with four games remaining, seemingly won the game three or four times. It closed the first half with an 11-2 scoring spurt and took a nine-point halftime lead. Then after Catawba inched within 37-35 on Bri Johnson’s 3-pointer early in the third quarter, the guests regained control, 55-44, with less than a minute to play in the third quarter. But even then, the Trojans needed freshman Alexy Mollenhauer’s last-second layup to force OT.

“You can never get happy in a game like this,” winning coach Jonathan Barbaree said after Anderson improved to 6-1 since mid-January. “It was like they’d get the lead and we’d make a run. Then they’d get the lead and we’d come back. It drives you nuts as a coach to be in a good game like this.”

Catawba played its best in the fourth period, despite converting only four of 14 shots from the floor. A 10-1 run — capped when Rogers sank two free throws with 8.7 seconds hanging on the clock — gave the Indians a 66-64 lead. Mollenhauer tied it on a doorstep layup.

“We were trying to face-guard and not give up a three,” said Brown. “But the girl got open.”

Brown’s 3-pointer from the right side gave Catawba a 69-68 lead with three minutes remaining in overtime, but it was Anderson senior Jasmine Franklin who seized the day in the extra session. The 5-foot-9 forward scored six points in OT, the last two when she took a zip pass from guard Heather Jankowy at the left block and hit a layup that gave the Trojans 72-69 edge.

“We call her our super-senior because she’s a grad student,” Barbaree said. “She’s a very physical player who gets the ball to the rim and finishes plays.”

The Trojans’ Madison Baggett closed the scoring with a pair of free throws with 2.6 seconds to go.

“It was a big win for us,” said Franklin — who played the entire game, shot 11-for-16 from the field, snagged 11 rebounds and added four assists. “We knew coming in here wouldn’t be easy, but a lot of things worked for us.”

And a lot of things didn’t for Catawba.

“You’re not gonna win many games when you shoot 29 percent,” said Morton. “I feel like we’re being tested. We’ve got to find an answer.”
NOTES: This was Catawba’s first overtime game. The Indians were 22-for-75 from the field. … Catawba visits Queens on Wednesday and Brevard next Saturday, teams it defeated handily in January. … Mollenhauer had 22 points, eight rebounds and four blocked shots for Anderson, winner of three straight games. It’s 2-0 in overtime matches.

ANDERSON (74) — J.Franklin 24, Mollenhauer 22, Koerperich 9, Baggett 7, Green 6, Jankowy 3, Sims 3, Young, Raynor, Martin.

CATAWBA (69) — Rogers 24, Brown 15, Butler 9, Johnson 9, Hallman 9, Hodges 3, M.Franklin, Webb.

Anderson             16    21    18    11    8  — 74

Catawba               15    13    18    20   3  — 69