Staff report

SALISBURY — Catawba’s women’s basketball team shot a bleak 30.4 percent on Friday night at Goodman Arena.

The top-seeded Indians still managed to survive a regional quarterfinal matchup with eighth-seeded UNC Pembroke.

The final was 58-48. A crowd of 471 provided a significant home-court advantage. Catawba is 14-0 at home this season.

Catawba (24-5) had advantages in the turnover battle (19-15) and the rebounding struggle (44-37), and the Braves (23-8) didn’t shoot much better than the Indians.

Catawba, which led 32-17 at halftime, got to the foul line much more frequently than UNCP and made 18 of 27 free ones.

Lyrik Thorne, who is racking up regional player of the year accolades, scored 10 points on 3-for-12 shooting. It was just one of those nights.

Janiya Downs and Nala Baker led the Indians with 13 points each.

Zaria Clark and Kalaya Hall scored 12 each for UNCP.

The other winners on the first day of the regional were sixth-seeded Anderson, fifth-seeded Georgia Southwestern and second-seeded Carson-Newman.

Packing up the uniforms in addition to UNC Pembroke were SAC tourney champ Wingate, Augusta and Lenoir-Rhyne.

Georgia Southwestern beat fourth-seeded L-R 62-59 in overtime in the best first-round game.

Catawba will play Georgia Southwestern on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. Saturday’s other semifinal will be a SAC matchup between Carson-Newman and Anderson at 5 p.m.

The teams will get Sunday off, with the regional championship scheduled for Goodman Arena on Monday.

UNC Pembroke      9    8    13    18   — 48

Catawba                  16   16   9   17     — 58

CATAWBA — Downs 13, Baker 13, Thorne 10, Mcintosh 7, Foskey 6, Spry 4, Porter 3, Wilson 2.