CULLOWHEE, N.C. – Kate and Ally Hollifield combined for 25 points and 12 rebounds Thursday night at the Liston B. Ramsey Center, leading Western Carolina to a 72-58 win over West Florida and a 2-0 start to the season. Kate Hollifield made four threes after missing her first five shots, and Ally controlled the glass with a game-high nine boards.
The Catamounts did not look like a team on its way to a 14-point win early. West Florida scored the first basket of the night off a jump ball, and Western Carolina shot just 4-of-17 from the field and 0-of-7 from three in the first quarter. The Argonauts led 16-14 after 10 minutes, helped by Giselle Eke’s four first-quarter points, Annarose Tyre’s two layups and a late free throw from Sinaya Gibson. Western Carolina stayed in the game by getting to the line and cleaning up its misses, grabbing 12 rebounds, seven of them offensive.
The second quarter changed the game. Kayla Mount’s layup tied it at 16 early in the period, and My’Asia Young took over inside, scoring eight of her 14 points in the quarter. Kate Hollifield then made back-to-back threes in the final two minutes, the first assisted by Justice Zimmerman and the second by Ellie Richardson, to push the lead to 14 at 35-21. The Catamounts outscored West Florida 26-12 in the quarter and went into halftime ahead 40-28.
Kate Hollifield finished with 14 points and went 4-of-9 from the three-point range, the team’s high from deep. After her cold start, she scored from the perimeter in the second, third and fourth quarters, including a fourth-quarter three off a Richardson pass that put the Catamounts up 68-50 and ended a brief West Florida push.
The third quarter extended the margin. Western Carolina outscored the Argonauts 23-14, and Ally Hollifield’s 20-foot jumper at the buzzer put the Catamounts ahead 63-42, their biggest lead of the night at 21. Young, who made 5 of 8 shots and added four rebounds, a steal and a block, and Mount, who finished with two blocks, helped control the paint and the pace. Western Carolina outscored West Florida 42-36 in the paint.
The Catamounts won the glass in a big way, 46-34, with 21 offensive rebounds that fueled second-chance opportunities all night. Ally Hollifield led the way with a game-high nine rebounds (seven defensive) to go with 11 points. Mount added four boards, and Tina Bowers added four more off the bench, and Western Carolina’s pressure also forced 15 West Florida turnovers, led by four each from Eke and Janai Jordan.
West Florida did not go away quietly. The Argonauts won the fourth quarter 16-9, cutting the deficit to 13 on an Ebba Zalamans layup with 3:18 left, and finished 14 points off Western Carolina’s turnovers and 11 in transition. Finley Kennedy led West Florida with 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting, including a three, and Jordan added 13. Tyre had four assists and three steals with no turnovers in 33 minutes, but West Florida shot 39 percent as a team and never recovered from the second-quarter deficit.
Richardson, the Catamounts’ point guard, had six points, a team-high three assists, and two steals. She committed just one turnover in 26 minutes. Western Carolina shot 41 percent overall (27-of-66) but made only five threes, a total that Kate Hollifield’s four mostly accounted for.
The win gives Western Carolina a 2-0 start to the season, following a 96-31 win over Carolina University on Nov. 2. West Florida falls to 0-2 after a 73-51 loss at East Tennessee State on Nov. 3. The Catamounts return to the Ramsey Center on Sunday, Nov. 8, to host Johnson.
