GREENVILLE, S.C. - With a career-high 29 points from junior Jasmine Franklin, No. 1 seed Anderson University women's basketball managed a second-half comeback and advanced to the championship round of the South Atlantic Conference Tournament with a 63-52 victory over Catawba Saturday afternoon at Timmons Arena on the campus of Furman University.
With the win, the Trojans move on to the title game for the second time in three seasons and move to 24-3 on the season, adding their 18th straight victory. Head Coach Jimmy Garrity advances to his first SAC Tournament final, as he improves to 3-1 in the postseason in his two seasons.
Franklin's 29 points was a bright spot in AU's 36.4 percent shooting performance, as the Trojans closed the afternoon with their lowest field goal percentage since Feb. 4. From behind the arc, Anderson managed just two 3-pointers, marking a season-low.
Following Franklin was senior guard Sierra Simpson with 15 points, as she became the 11th Trojan to eclipse the 1,000-point mark for her career. The guard also led the team with eight rebounds, while handing out three assists and swiping three steals. The Simpsonville, S.C. duo combined for 44 of the team's 63 points on the day.
For Catawba, three players landed in double figures, as Terri Rogers led the way with 15 points and a game-high 18 rebounds, including 10 on the defensive end. Following the forward was Bri Johnson with 13 points, while Jada Huntley added 11, as both players pulled down seven rebounds apiece.
The teams played to three ties in the first 12 minutes of the contest, playing out to a 14-14 deadlock to the eight-minute mark. Within AU's 14 points, Franklin scored 12 points, while Catawba's Huntley fired back with nine points of her own.
With the score even at 14-14, the Lady Indians tallied seven straight points, capped off by a Chloe Bully 3-pointer handing Catawba its largest lead of the game at 21-14. Franklin broke the Indian scoring streak with a jumper, as AU posted its first field goal in a three-minute span.
As Catawba continued to cling to its lead with 25-20 advantage at the 3:40 mark, Anderson scored four quick points to cut the deficit with one, its smallest since the 16-14 mark. Simpson gave the Trojans the lead back with just over two minutes remaining with a jumper inside the paint for two of her eight first-half points.
With less than two minutes remaining, the teams traded buckets and Catawba's Johnson set the halftime score by making 1-of-2 from the free throw line pushing the score at 28-27. For the first time since Anderson's 10-point win over Coker on Jan. 10, the Trojans faced a deficit at halftime.
In the second half, the Indians took their largest lead of the final stanza of four points when Rogers buried a jumper, making the score 36-32. Not be out-done, Anderson scored the next six points with Franklin sandwiching a pair of jumpers around a Simpson basket to provide the Black and Gold their second lead of the second half at 39-37.
After Catawba's Johnson made a pair of free throws to even the score, the Trojans notched their first trey of the game when Simpson drained a corner 3-pointer and gave AU a narrow lead. Despite the trey, Catawba bounced back with four unanswered points from Serena Brown and Alexis Newbold to regain the lead.
The lead was short-lived as Franklin scored in the lane to give AU a lead it would not relinquish at the nine-minute mark, as the field goal started a 16-3 run by the Trojans, as they held Catawba to one made field goal over the next seven minutes. Within the run, senior guard Lesley Woods connected on her first 3-pointer of the game continuing a streak of 11 straight games with at least one 3-pointer.
Catawba would come no closer than nine points for the remainder of the game, as Anderson sealed the contest by containing the Indian offense to just 1-for-6 from the field in the final 2:43 of the game.
Anderson looks for its second SAC Tournament championship in program history when it squares off against No. 3 seed Newberry, which defeated seventh-seeded Lenoir-Rhyne in the second semifinal of the day. The title game is scheduled for 1 p.m. from Timmons Arena.
