Phillips, Lady 49ers Crowned Christmas City Classic Champs

BETHLEHEM, Pa. – In a game eerily similar to how it played Saturday, the Charlotte women’s basketball team used the first career double-double by redshirt junior Jade Phillips to close out the hosts, Lehigh, 62-60, Sunday afternoon to win the Christmas City Classic tournament crown. It marks the second in-season tournament the 49ers have won during head coach Cara Consuegra’s tenure.

LEADERS
Phillips put her team on her back in the fourth quarter, tallying 16 points in the frame, including the decisive winner with 5.9 seconds to go, as part of her career-high 27. She finished 12-of-21 from the field, including 2-of-5 from behind the 3-point arc, in addition to grabbing 14 rebounds, 10 on the defensive glass.

While she was the only Niners individual in double-figure scoring, sophomore Mariah Linney added nine points and junior Lauren Harley hauled in nine boards.

Emma Grothaus paced the Mountain Hawks with a double-double of her own, tallying 10 points and 12 caroms. Camryn Buhr chipped in 17 points, while Gena Grundhoffer contributed 11 to give Lehigh (5-2) a trio of double-digit scorers.

FIRST QUARTER
The game started back-and-forth with Charlotte (4-1) maintaining a two-point edge, 8-6, after freshman Jazmin Harris’ jumper at the 6:11 mark. Hailey Pascoe put the Mountain Hawks on top with a triple following the media timeout, at 4:26 and Grundhoffer added a layup on the next Lehigh possession to push the Niners’ deficit to three, 11-8. Redshirt sophomore Christian Hithe cut the gap back to one with a layup at 3:45 but it would be the final 49ers’ bucket of the period. The Mountain Hawks closed the frame with seven-straight points, from four different players, to hold the 18-10 lead through the opening 10 minutes.

SECOND QUARTER
Neither team could find the bottom of the net through the first two minutes until Hannah Hedstrom drained a 3-pointer at 7:54to give the home side its largest lead, 20-10. Phillips answered on the other end with a trifecta of her own and it ignited a 13-2 spark, spanning just over three minutes, as Charlotte clawed back into the contest and regained the lead, 23-22, on a Linney layup at 4:12. Sophomore Octavia Jett-Wilson dropped in back-to-back 3-pointers in the spurt, both off Harley assists, as the Niners played on without senior Laia Raventós who was on the bench in foul trouble. Grundhoffer ended the Lehigh lull with the next five points, however, as the Mountain Hawks pulled back on top, 27-23, with 3:06 remaining. Charlotte then used a 6-2 half-closing run, the last points coming on a Phillips jumper with 42 seconds left, to draw even at the break, 29-29.

THIRD QUARTER
Again, an icy start for both sides kept scoring off the board until the 6:31 mark when Grundhoffer put in an offensive rebound. Linney followed with two free throws and then Raventós connected on a 3-pointer, extending the 49ers’ cushion to three, 34-31, with 5:03 to go. Two-straight trips to the foul line resulted in four-consecutive points for Lehigh, as it edged ahead but back-to-back conversions on the other end from freshman Jada McMillian and senior Ka’Neeshia Brown halted any further push, as Charlotte reclaimed the 38-35 advantage. An old-fashioned three-point play from Grothaus forced the sixth tie of the contest, 40-40, with 1:56 to play. Two more charity tosses, this time from Megan Walker, put the Mountain Hawks on top, 42-40, but Phillips beat the buzzer with a floater to level the score entering the final period. It marked the second-straight contest in which the Niners were tied 42-42 at the end of the third.

FOURTH QUARTER
After Phillips and Buhr each made buckets to keep the score tied, for the eighth time, Hedstrom intercepted a 49ers pass and converted the layup, giving Lehigh the two-point edge. It was the start of a 13-7 Mountain Hawks run in the next 3:03, capped by a Buhr triple at 3:12, to give the hosts a 57-51 lead. Buhr had nine points of her own during the surge. It then became the Phillips show, as her layup at the 2:48 mark was the start of six-straight points over the course of two minutes, as Charlotte made its final offensive run and played defensive on the other end to help flip the script. Her tying bucket came with 38.9 seconds on the clock. Lehigh burned a timeout after the conversion and was able to use a pair of Buhr free throws with 32.5 seconds left to pull ahead 59-57. After a 49ers miss, another quick foul sent Grothaus to the stripe where she made 1-of-2 for a 60-57 score with 22.3 seconds to play. After Charlotte advanced the ball, a quick bucket by Phillips made it a one-point difference with 20.8 seconds left. The Mountain Hawks went to the line again, with 12.4 seconds remaining, but both attempts were missed giving the Niners another chance. After advancing the ball, the 49ers located Phillips for a floater in the late with 5.9 seconds left. She was fouled on the play, and made the ensuing free throw, to create the final score as Lehigh’s final look did not convert.

UP NEXT
Charlotte returns home to begin December action when it plays host to ECU at 4 p.m. Saturday inside Halton Arena.