Staff report

MARS HILL — Catawba’s women, having lost five of their last six games, erupted against last-place Mars Hill here Saturday afternoon, whipping the Lions, 83-48.

The Indians bounced back from Wednesday’s 59-39 loss at Newberry, when they scored just 12 points in the second half. On Saturday, Coach Angie Morton’s team turned in four solid quarters, even scoring 29 points in the third period.

Catawba led at halftime, 37-21, after holding the Lions to just three points in the second quarter. The big third period completely blew the game open for the Indians.

Catawba improves to 14-13 overall and 12-8 in the South Atlantic Conference. The Indians will see action next week in the SAC Tournament. Mars Hill ends its season at 2-26 and 1-19.

Freshman Destiny McCollough came off the bench with a career-high 18 points to lead Catawba. McCollough, a 6-2 post player from Greensboro, was 9-for-12 from the floor and also grabbed nine rebounds.

Elizabeth Webb also had a big game for the Indians, scoring 17 points, including 5-of-10 shooting from the 3-point arc. Talia Barnes made 6-of-8 shots, scoring 13 points and pulling down five rebounds.

Mariah Johnson scored 19 points to lead the Lions, followed by 14 from Shayla Smith.

For the game, Catawba shot 44 percent from the floor (32-of-73), including 9-of-27 on 3-point shots.

CATAWBA (83) — DeShazo 9, Barnes 13, Hallman 6, Webb 17, Stanback, Franklin 5, Hodges 5, Brown 2, Stevenson 3, Gardner 3, Rogers 2, McCollough 18.

MARS HILL (48) — Hampton 6, Walston 4, Pokrovskaya 5, Grubbs, Johnson 19, Smith 14.

Catawba         19   18    29    17 — 83

Mars Hill       18     3    15     12 — 48