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ASHEVILLE, N.C. --- Top-seeded UNC Asheville defeated eighth-seeded Campbell 70-42 to advance to the semifinals of the 2016 Big South Women's Basketball Championship on Friday afternoon. Jessica Pone led the Lady Camels (13-17) with 10 points.
Senior RaeChaun Edwards scored five points and five rebounds to close out her decorated Campbell career. Edwards will finish with 554 career assists, which will stand fourth all-time at CU. Her 253 career steals will also finish in the program's top 10.
Pone, also a senior, finishes her Lady Camel career as CU's leading scorer for the game. She set new career-highs in every major category this season and led the team with an .875 free throw percentage. Jewell Yarborough also played in her last career game and pulled down a rebound.
Amanda Coffer will finish as the Lady Camel's leading scorer this season with an average of 11.4 points per game. She scored in double-figures in 21 contest and hit the game-winning three at the buzzer in the first round victory over Coastal Carolina.
Versus the Bulldogs, Qua Brown scored six points with a pair of rebounds and Brianna Cribb came off the bench and tallied five points while matching Edwards' team-high five rebounds. Summer Price concluded her sophomore campaign after scoring in double figures in the last seven games of the regular season.
UNC Asheville (23-6) had three double figure scorers including Big South Player of the Year Chatori major, who had 14. Khaila Webb had a game-high 15 points and Tianna Knuckles tallied 13. Bronaza Fitzgerald pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds.
An early 10-0 spurt for the Bulldogs earned a 12-2 advantage and forced the Lady Camels to call an early timeout three minutes into the contest. A Pone triple broke up what finished as an 11-0 run. CU was able to get the lead back to single digits on a Bria Emanuel layup and a pair of Brown buckets, but the Bulldogs led 23-11 after the first frame after a Jessica Wall three with 20 seconds on the clock.
Back-to-back threes by Major pushed the Asheville advantage to 16 (29-13) with 7:12 left in the second. CU was only able to draw back with 14 of the lead midway through the frame before UNCA scored 11 of the first half's 15 points to take a 45-24 lead at halftime. A Webb three late in the period gave the Bulldogs its largest lead of the half.
A long second half scoring drought for the Lady Camels helped UNCA build a 53-24 lead through the first five minutes of the third period. A running layup for Rouse stopped the bleeding but the Bulldogs' lead hit 30 at 56-26 with 3:30 to play in the third. CU held the Bulldogs scoreless for two minutes late in the period, however Asheville took a 63-30 lead to the fourth.
CU opened the final stanza with the first five points, which turned into a 9-2 run through the first four minutes in the period. Overall, the Lady Camels outscored the Bulldogs 12-7 in the final period.
UNC Asheville will take on Presbyterian in Saturday's first semifinal at 2 p.m.
