Johnson scores 38 to lead Florida Southern past GSW women

Local Sports

November 21, 2009

Johnson scores all 26 points during 34-15 run in second half

Chris Whitaker

SAINT LEO, Fla. — Georgia Southwestern didn't have an answer for Chelsea Johnson Saturday night.

Johnson scored 26 of her game-high 38 points in the second during a 34-15 run as Florida Southern handed the Lady Hurricanes an 81-72 loss.

"She was unbelievable," said coach Kelly Britsky. "We could not stop her. She found a way to get open and is as quick as can be. It wasn't for her, it would be a whole different ball game."

Johnson's jumper with two seconds left gave the Lady Mocs a 37-35 halftime lead.

GSW (1-2) led 43-40 with 17:38 remaining in the second half when Florida Southern (3-1) went on its run sparked by Johnson. She made all five of her threes in the run as well.

"She's real good," said Britsky. "She's averaged a lot of points every game they've had. She's a tough kid, real smart, and knows when to pull for shots. Brittany Reynolds was on her all night, and she had a hard time with her."

Reynolds and Brandi Burris did their parts, keeping GSW in the game. Burris scored 24 and grabbed eight rebounds while Reynolds had 20 points, nine rebounds and three steals. Whitley Wiltz had a game-high 16 boards.

"We came out really flat," said Britsky. "We were still hung over per se from last night's game. We didn't do a good job shaking it off. Florida Southern took advantage of our errors and is very good on offense. They knew where to put the ball and where teammates were going to be.

"We just didn't do the things down the stretch that we needed to do," said Britsky. "We were in the ball game when they got on that run. (Johnson) hit those shots and got them ahead, and we couldn't catch up."

Terra Branch, who didn't play in Friday's game after spraining an ankle in shoot-around, played 12 minutes this game. Tonette Murphy played nine minutes and dislocated her shoulder.

Both are questionable for Tuesday's home game against Truett-McConnell.

"We're struggling right now," said Britsky. "I hope we turn things around Tuesday night. We hoped to come back with two wins this weekend, and we're pretty disappointed. Friday's game was kind of taken away from us, and today we didn't shot up and take care of business. We have a lot to work on."