Kyra Davis scores at the buzzer to lift the CU women to victory.
(Dunn Area Sports Photo/Paul Burgett)
BUIES CREEK — Kyra Davis’ layup at the buzzer lifted Campbell over the College of Charleston 66-65 Thursday night at Gore Arena.
Campbell moved to 2-1 with the win, while the Cougars took their first loss of the season, falling to 2-1.
After trailing by as many as 17 in the first half, Campbell stormed back to knot the game at 51 on Hayley Barber’s three from the wing with 7:13 to go in the fourth quarter. After a Darien Huff jumper in the lane returned the lead to the Cougars, Davis’ corner three with 5:36 to go gave Campbell its first lead since the 6:50 mark of the first quarter.
CU’s lead ballooned to 61-56 on another Barber layup with 2:02 to play, but back-to-back Cougar baskets, first a jump shot from Bri Sullivan, then a three from Tyler Collins tied it up at 63 with 31 seconds remaining.
After a CofC foul with 2.9 seconds on the clock, Ashlyn Hampton hit the second of two free throws to put Campbell up one, but a Camel foul with 1.1 seconds to go put Arynn Eady at the line.
Eady knocked down both free throws to give Charleston a 65-64 advantage. Campbell’s timeout advanced the ball, where Barber’s inbound pass found Davis for the game-winning lay-in.
“I like the way our team fought back from being down,” said CU coach Ronny Fisher. “It didn’t look good there in the first half. We were struggling on both ends. We made some good adjustments and our players really listened. I thought our defense picked up and, in turn, we were able to get some points off that defense. Down the stretch, we made some mistakes, missed some free throws, but we found the ability to score in that last play because we practiced it earlier today. It was really rewarding to see that hard work we put in pay off for us.
“I felt great about that final play because we had practiced it and I knew they were going to chase Caroline [Bowns] on the screen, which they did, and they switched. That left Kyra with the mismatch and Hayley is a really good passer and she threw a perfect pass. It was kind of one-on-one down there and they didn’t want to foul, so she was able to get that ball to the rim.”
Davis finished the night with 16 points and nine rebounds, with eight boards coming in the second half. Davis and Barber both notched seven fourth quarter points. Barber totaled eight points and six assists in the win.
Caroline Bowns also tallied 11 points, hitting 3-of-6 threes, while Hampton gathered 10 points, six rebounds and three steals.
Collins paced the visitors with 15 points, nine assists and three steals, shooting 5-for-18 from the field, while Deja Ford scored 12 and Huff added 11.
CofC led 32-15 in the first half Huff’s three at the 6:27 mark of the second quarter, capping a 12-2 run for the Cougars. ShyAnne Tuelle’s triple cut the Charleston lead to 20-13 47 seconds to go in the first before the run.
Campbell trimmed the lead to single digits at 34-25 with 1:54 to go before the break on Hampton’s free throw, and CofC took a 37-27 advantage into halftime.
The Camels erased Charleston’s 42-31 lead with a 10-0 run midway through the third quarter. Campbell committed only six second half turnovers after posting 14 in the first, while Charleston committed 21 on the night, including 10 in the second half.
Campbell also owned a 46-31 advantage on the boards.
Next up for the Camels will be a trip to Norfolk State on Tuesday.
(Campbell media services provided the basis for this report)
The Lady Camels celebrate after the winning basket Thursday night.
(Dunn Area Sports Photo/Paul Burgett)
