Dec. 31, 2000

Box Score

ST. LOUIS - Up only one point with just over three minutes left to play, Saint Louis held the Charlotte 49ers women's basketball team scoreless for the remainder of the game to pull out a 58-49 win Sunday afternoon at the Bauman-Eberhardt Center. It was the Conference USA season-opener for both schools.

Three players reached double figures in scoring for Saint Louis (10-2, 1-0 C-USA), led by April McKinney's career-high 18 points. Tonya Phifer was the high scorer for Charlotte (4-7, 0-1 C-USA) with 16 points, enough to move past Nikki Richardson into ninth place on the Niners' career scoring list. She trails Charlette Hargrove in eighth place by three points.

The 49ers led by as many as 10 points in the first half, taking a 31-21 lead on a Phifer three-pointer with 3:18 to play. The Billikens rallied, however, and pulled to within a bucket, 31-29, by halftime. In the second half, Charlotte took a seven-point lead, 44-37, on a Phifer layup with 7:33 left in regulation. Saint Louis answered with an 11-2 run, capped by a McKinney layup that put her team on top, 48-46. The Niners pulled to within one with 3:06 left to play, by the Billikens hit six straight free throws down the stretch to pull out the win.

Charlotte returns to action Friday, Jan. 5, when they host Southern Miss in Halton Arena.