CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Tonia Gerty scored 19 points and College of Charleston took advantage of cold shooting by Furman to claim a 56-50 win in Southern Conference women's basketball action Monday evening at Carolina First Arena.

With the victory College of Charleston improves to 6-14 overall and 3-8 in SoCon play.  The loss dropsFurman to 8-11 overall and 4-6 in league play.

Paced by Kelly O'Connor's 17 points, Furman shot just 27.8 percent in the contest (15-of-54), connecting on just 6-of-25 shots (24.0 percent) in the second half.

Latisha Harris trailed Gerty in the scoring column with 12 points and Janae Smith added 10 for the Cougars, who shot 35.6 percent from the field.

Gerty drained a 3-pointer less than a minute into the second half to tie the game at 27-27 and converted another trey a short while later to help key a 10-2 run that gave the Cougars a 34-27 lead following a pair of Smith free throws with 16:19 remaining.

Trailing 44-37 with 8:50 to go, Furman used a 9-0 spurt behind Kelly O'Connor and Katilin Murphy to take a 46-44 lead on a Murphy jump shot with 5:29 left.

The Cougars responded with Gerty, who canned back-to-back baskets to put College of Charleston up 48-46.  Harris' jumper at the 2:46 mark made it 50-46, but an O'Connor 3-pointer with 2:28 to go cut the lead to one.

The Paladins, however, managed only one point the rest of the way, with Harris' layup with three seconds remaining sealing the victory.

Kendra Berry recorded a game high 13 rebounds.

Furman plays at Appalachian State on Wednesday in a 7:00 p.m. game.