March 11, 2002
Cullowhee, N.C. - In the final Southern Conference standings released this week, Western Carolina's women's basketball team finished in fifth place with a record of 17-11, 9-9 behind UT Chattanooga, UNC Greensboro, Furman, and Georgia Southern. UT Chattanooga will represent the SoCon in the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year, and UNC Greensboro will play in the Postseason Women's National Invitational Tournament for the first time.
With their 17-11 finish, it was the first winning season for the Catamounts since the 1982-83 season when they went 17-10. It was also the most wins for the Cats since becoming an NCAA Division I program in 1981-82. Prior to their loss to Furman in the SoCon Tournament, Western had won their final three games of the season and four of their last five games, including a win against WNIT participant UNC Greensboro, and a win over Georgia Southern, which was the first time the Cats swept the Eagles in a season.
The Lady Catamounts had several other accolades on the season. Senior center Laura Echols is currently 30th in the NCAA rankings in scoring, averaging 19.1 ppg. Freshman forward Jennifer Gardner is also ranked nationally coming in 33rd in free throw percentage at 85.3 percent. These two teammates also earned SoCon Player of the Week honors on Dec. 10 and Feb. 25 respectively.
Among Echols' other honors in her career, she was named to the All-Conference Team for her third straight year, and she was also named to the Verizon Academic All-District III First Team. Point guard Ki-Ki Glass was named to the SoCon All-Freshman Team this year. Glass had a team-high 117 assists for the Catamounts, which put her at first place in the conference, averaging 4.2 assists per game. Rounding out the season award winners is sophomore guard Yoneko Allen who was named to the Verizon Academic All-District III Second Team. Allen was third on the team in scoring, averaging 9.0 ppg, and added 53 asists for the season to help the Lady Cats.
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