Box Score GREENWOOD, SC--USC Aiken (12-10, 4-7 PBC) committed 16 second half turnovers as Lander University (18-4, 10-2 PBC) overcame a 14-point halftime deficit to eek out a 72-70 win in women's Peach Belt Conference basketball on Saturday night at Finis Horne Arena. Four Lady Bearcat players accounted for 61 of the team's 72 points.
Despite out shooting Lander 51.2 percent to 38.8 percent, and out rebounding the Lady Bearcats 41-29, USC Aiken turned the ball over 16 times in the second stanza compared to four miscues for LU.
The Lady Pacers, fresh off their 28-point win over rival Augusta State on Wednesday, opened with strong play bolting to a 11-2 lead on
Lana Mandic's baseline 14-footer with 15:58 remaining in the first half. Lander countered with an 8-2 run and cut the margin to 13-10 on Shelby Sikes bucket in the paint with 11:44 to play.
USCA sharpshooter
Kasey Mills drained two three-pointers in an 11-4 Lady Pacer run to build a 24-14 lead with 5:43 left until half. Mills, ranked third in the PBC in three-point shooting percentage (40.8 percent), scored nine of her team-high 13 points in the first half on 3-of-4 from deep.
Natasha Hemphill drilled the Lady Bearcats' first triple with 5:10 left to cut it back to single digits at 24-17. But USC Aiken closed the half on a 12-5 run to take a commanding 36-22 lead at the break.
In the first half, USCA shot 56.5 percent from the field, held Lander to 30.0 percent shooting, committing just one more turnover, and out rebounded the Lady Bearcats 21-13.
An intense Lander team determined to hold on to their lead in the conference standings, opened the second half on a 12-4 run to cut the lead to 40-34 on Jennifer Beamon's trey at 17:13. Beamon was 6-of-13 from the field in scoring all 17 of her points in the second half. Tracy Jacobs, the team's leading scorer (20.0 ppg), was held to four points at the half but scored 13 in the final 20 minutes.
Trailing 58-54 with 8:06 to play, Jacobs scored six of the Lady Bearcats eight-straight points as they seized their first lead of the game and built a 62-58 advantage with 5:54 remaining.
A couple of defensive stops helped the Lady Pacers pull back even as
Erica Larsen and
Benazura Serbecic each converted a pair of charity tosses to knot it up at 62-62 with 4:58 on the clock. Larsen finished with 11 points and six rebounds, but eight of her points came in the opening period. Serbecic just missed her fifth double double in the last seven games scoring 10 points and pulling down nine rebounds in 28 minutes.
Serbecic scored eight of her points over the final five minutes including six straight, the last two on free throws with 2:56 to play to give USCA back the lead 68-67.
Following turnovers by both teams, Beamon converted a three-point play with 1:58 on the clock to take a 70-68 lead.
Haylee Reichert scored with 41.4 seconds remaining to reduce the margin to 72-70. Following a defensive stop by the Lady Pacers, USCA had the basketball with 10.0 to play.
Sarah Kendrick traveled the length of the floor, but miscommunication on the part of the Lady Pacers did not allow them to get a shot off as time expired.
USCA made just five field goals over the final 15:30 of the second half as Lander attempted 17 more shots than the Lady Pacers in the final stanza.
The loss snapped the Lady Pacers six-game winning streak over the Lady Bearcats and extended Lander's home court winning streak to nine games.
USC Aiken will play at UNC Pembroke on Monday, February 16 at 5:30 PM. This is a make-up game of the January 28 contest that was postponed due to an ice storm.
SCORING:
USC Aiken (70): Kasey Mills 13,
Erica Larsen 11,
Benazura Serbecic 10,
Sarah Kendrick 9,
Haylee Reichert 9,
Lana Mandic 7,
Gezel Virella 4,
Katie Mitchell 4,
Katie Gebhardt 2,
Beata Szabo 1
Lander (72): Natasha Hemphill 17, Jennifer Beamon 17, Tracy Jacobs 17, Jacquay White 10, Meredith Crabtree 3, Ashley Johnson 2, Lashundra Dubose 2, Quiannta Mauney 2, Shelby Sikes 2.
Boxscore
