By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — Nobody’s perfect, but senior guard Bri Johnson flirted with flawlessness as Catawba’s women’s basketball team clobbered Brevard, 90-64, on Sunday afternoon.

“I missed a layup,” Johnson said shaking her head.

Well,  she did miss one, right at the start of the second half. Other than that, every shot she tried found the net. She made her only other layup attempt off a steal, went 3-for-3 at the foul line after she was fouled on a 3-point attempt, and went 6-for-6 from behind the 3-point line.

That meant an efficient 23 points with just one miss. All six of her 3-pointers came in the first half. The only other lady in Catawba history to go 6-for-6 on 3-pointers  in a game was Hillary Hampton Nixon. She did it 10 seasons ago against St. Augustine’s.

Johnson made a 3-pointer shortly after the opening tip and knocked down three long ones in the first quarter as Catawba took a 20-8 lead.

“When I make that first shot, my confidence gets up,” Johnson said. “That’s the hottest I’ve been since that game in the NCAA tournament.”

In a 2015 NCAA tournament game that Catawba lost to Limestone, Johnson shot 8-for-12 on 3-pointers and scored 29. She scored 41 against Carson-Newman recently, but that was mostly on 2-pointers.

Besides getting 23 points from Johnson, Catawba got 22 points from Terri Rogers, who had her way in the paint against the Tornados (5-7, 1-7 SAC). Serena Brown had a terrific floor game — 10 assists, just one turnover — in 18 minutes of action.

“Serena got the ball where it needed to go,” Catawba coach Angie Morton said.

Brevard made its only run in the second quarter, but the Indians answered with a 10-0 burst sparked by Marshauna Butler’s three-point play to take a 20-point halftime  lead.

Catawba (10-3, 7-1 SAC) is shooting the ball very well from outside, with a program-record 14 3-pointers on Wednesday and 13 more 3-balls on Sunday. Nine of those 3-pointers splashed before halftime.

“If we wanted to break the record for 3-pointers today, we could have,” Morton said. “The important thing was we were able to play everybody. A lot of girls got experience, and we’re going to need everybody. We’ve got a very tough week ahead of us.”

Elizabeth Webb, Madi Hallman and Kaitlin Stevenson made two 3-pointers apiece for the Indians, and Brown made one. Catawba shot a slightly higher percent on 3-pointers (50 percent, 13-for-26) than 2-pointers.

Madison Lenox scored 19 points to lead Brevard.

Tied for second in the SAC with Anderson, Catawba begins a stretch of three straight road games at  fourth-place Wingate on Wednesday at 6 p.m. Then Catawba goes to undefeated Lincoln Memorial on Saturday.

“It’s a big week,” Johnson said. “We’re ready.”

 

BREVARD (64)
Lenox 19, Clark 11, Bollinger 10, Bryant 9, Rhyne 7, Crisp 7, Wilson 1.
CATAWBA (90)
Johnson 23, Rogers 22, Butler 9, Newbold 8, Webb 8, Stevenson 6, Hallman 6, Tucker 5, Brown 3,  Angelo, Franklin.

Brevard   8   23    12  21 — 64
Catawba 20 31  20    19 — 90