College women’s basketball: Catawba rallies for home win
Published 12:52 am Sunday, January 23, 2022
- Catawba's Lyrik Thorne 33 and Carson Newman's; Abby Wilson 22. photo by Wayne Hinshaw; for the Salisbury Post
Catawba’s Janiya Downs . Photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post.
Catawba’s Lyrik Thorne. Photo by Wayne Hinshaw; for the Salisbury Post.
Staff report
SALISBURY — Catawba’s women’s basketball played a stellar fourth quarter and rallied to beat Lincoln Memorial for another South Atlantic Conference win on Saturday afternoon.
Lyrik Thorne (season-high 23 points) and former South Rowan standout Janiya Downs (19) carried the Indians to a 72-65 victory at Goodman Gym, while Jada Davie added 10 big ones off the bench.
Thorne shot a spectacular 6-for-7 on 3-pointers and had eight assists. Downs made three 3-pointers.
Shemya Stanback pulled down nine rebounds, while Mercedes Wampler had eight.
The Indians overcame a defiicit that got as steep as 13 points in the third quarter. They still trailed by seven heading to the fourth quarter.
Lincoln Memorial led 35-32 at halftime.
When the visitors outscored Catawba 15-5 to open the second half, the Indians were down 50-37 with 5:52 left in the quarter.
Catawba reduced the deficit to 59-52 heading to the fourth quarter.
In the fourth quarter, Catawba ramped up the defensive pressure and forced eight turnovers, while outscoring LMU 20-6.
A 10-0 run, capped by a Thorne 3-pointer, gave the Indians a 62-61 lead with 4:40 left.
They held off the Railsplitters the rest of the way.
Catawba (15-2, 12-2) won despite a career-high 28 points by LMU’s Lindsay Proffitt.
Thanks mostly to Thorne, Catawba shot 13-for-25 on 3-pointers. Catawba shot 44.6 percent from the field, much better than the season average, and shot better than 50 percent in the second half.
Catawba had a 12-2 advantage in offensive boards and a 10-4 edge in steals.
The Railsplitters (8-6, 6-5) made the long road trip to Salisbury on Friday. Catawba won 60-57 at LMU early in the season.
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Wingate (16-1, 14-0) stayed undefeated in the SAC with a 74-58 win against Carson-Newman. Bryanna Troutman (Salisbury) scored 26 points for the Bulldogs. Catawba moved past Carson-Newman (15-4, 12-3) into second place.
LMU 13 22 24 6 — 65
Catawba 18 14 20 20 — 72
LMU — Proffitt 28, Flowers 12, Davisson 11, Kuehne 6, Day 4, Rios 4.
CATAWBA — Thorne 23, Downs 19, Davie 10, McIntosh 6, Ford 5, Stanback 4, DeShazo 3, Wampler 2.
Brendan Saak
