Terriers fall short to Mercer, 60-38
The Women’s basketball program advanced to its first Southern conference championship in school history, but were no match for the no. 2 seed Mercer Bears, falling 60-38. Offensive woes plagued the Terriers, who committed 14 turnovers and had no players reach double-digit scoring while missing a litany of shots around the rim.
Lilly Hatton ‘23 collected first team all-tournament honors, averaging 10.0 ppg and 6.3 rpg in theTerriers’ three games against UNCG, ETSU and Mercer. Helen Matthews ‘24 was named second team all-tournament and led Wofford in scoring with 9 points during the championship match.
Head Coach Jimmy Garrity acknowledged the less-than-ideal ending, but praised the team for their hard work and accomplishments, reaching uncharted territory for the Women’s basketball program.
“I told our players, you know they’re hanging their heads, I told them that the college and the community at Wofford were just super proud of them, and the coaching staff,” he said.
The Terriers entered the tournament as the no. 4 seed, defeating the no. 5 seed UNCG Spartans 78-66 in the quarterfinal round. No. 8 seed ETSU’s upset of conference-best Samford in the quarterfinals gave the Terriers a favorable semifinal matchup, where they defeated the Buccaneers 75-64, setting the Sunday date with Mercer in the final.
The significance of the women’s program reaching their first conference title game was not lost on Garrity.
“They’ll go down in the history books, and at some point we’re gonna win this thing. You gotta get here first,” the 5th-year head coach said. “Now yeah, we wanted to win this first one that we got to, but there’s a lot of people that never even dreamed of Wofford women’s basketball getting here, and this team is the one that took the first step.”
The Terriers had no answer for the Bears, who had three double-figure scorers that were named first team all-tournament.
“You just gotta give Mercer credit —we just really couldn’t get anything going offensively,” Garrity commented. “The first quarter was good, and at halftime honestly we probably missed 8 points worth of bunnies, putbacks or layups, and then I think we were 2-6 from the line, and then we had back-to-back single-digit quarters.”
The Terriers will lose lone senior Jamari McDavid, but retain the rest of their primary rotation, including five players who averaged 20+ minutes per game.
“She’s just got a great personality and she’s gonna be one you miss day in and day out,” Garrity said of McDavid.
Players such as Hatton, Matthews, team captains Jackie Carman ‘22 and Alexis Tomlin ‘22 as well as Niyah Lutz ‘22 are expected to lead the way in the 2021-22 campaign.
“This one will sting for a little bit” Garrity admitted. “I’m excited about next year…we’re in really good shape…, I think next year’s team is gonna do some really good things.”