GREENWOOD – Wingate's Anna Atkinson completed a 10-for-10 shooting night from the line, making two free throws with 46 seconds left to give the Lady Bulldogs an 87-85 victory over Lander in a non-conference women's basketball game Wednesday night at Horne Arena.
Atkinson led all scorers with 24 points while Kasey Gillis scored 15 of her career-high 17 points in the second half to lead Wingate (6-4).
Tiara Good led Lander (5-4) with 17 points, Shannon McKever added 16 points, and LaShonda Chiles and Stephanie Ponds added 13 points apiece. Ponds led the Lady Bearcats with nine rebounds.
Erica Crumlin added 12 points and three blocked shots for Wingate, C.C. Brooks scored 10 points, and Stacie Rhodes had eight points and a game-high 13 rebounds. Atkinson led the Lady Bulldogs with seven assists.
Atkinson drove to the basket and drew a foul with one second left on the shot clock to get to the line. She made both free throws to put Wingate on top, 87-85, with 46.9 seconds to go. The rest of the game was a wild exchange of turnovers and missed shots.
Lander's McKever stole a pass with about 15 seconds left and teammate Kiana Smith was fouled with 12.3 ticks to go. Smith missed both shots, but Ponds grabbed the offensive rebound. Ponds missed inside, but the Lady Bearcats retained possession. Good missed an off-balance jumper with five seconds left and Wingate pulled down the rebound to close out its second victory over Lander this season.
Wingate opened the second half with a 10-4 run, extending a 50-44 halftime lead to its largest advantage of the game at 60-48. Chiles made a reverse lay-up off a pass from Good and converted a three-point play while Tasheba Butler also made a three-point play in a 10-1 run that pulled Lander within 61-58 with 14:16 left. But Wingate went on a 16-7 run to rebuild its lead back to 12, 77-65, with 8:35 to go.
Trailing 79-67, the Lady Bearcats scored six unanswered points on a basket by McKever, and two Chiles lay-ups off steals to close within 79-73 at the 7:27 mark. After a scoreless stretch of two minutes, Chiles stole the ball from Wingate's point guard and drove for a lay-up to make it 79-75 with 5:14 to go. After a couple of basket exchanges, McKever and Butler scored back-to-back buckets to tie the game at 83 at the 3:55 mark.
Crumlin scored on a put-back to give the Lady Bulldogs an 85-83 lead with 2:55 to go before fouling out one minute later. McKever, after being fouled by Crumlin, hit two free throws to tie the game at 85 with 1:43 to go.
The first half featured nine ties and several lead changes as the teams totaled 94 points. Wingate outscored the Lady Bearcats 10-4 over the final three minutes of the first half for a 50-44 lead at the break. Each team shot at least 50 percent in the first half with Lander making 16 of 31 shots (52 percent) and Wingate 20 of 40 (50 percent) with Atkinson, Rhodes and Brooks combining for 12 of 18 shooting. Atkinson had 12 points in the first half for the Lady Bulldogs while Good and Ponds had nine apiece for Lander.
Wingate forced several early turnovers and built an 11-5 lead. Good's second 3-pointer of the night pulled the Lady Bearcats into a 16-all tie. But Lander was unable to build much of a lead in the first half, going up by no more than two. Lander's last lead of the half was 36-34 on two free throws by Smith at the 4:25 mark.
For the game, Lander made 32 of 75 shots from the floor (43 percent), 16 of 22 free throws (73 percent), and five of 15 from 3-point range (33 percent). The Lady Bearcats were 0-for-7 from behind the arc in the second half.
Wingate made 34 of 74 shots from the floor (46 percent), 17 of 20 free throws (85 percent), and two of nine from behind the arc (22 percent). Each team had 44 rebounds.
