Box Score PEMBROKE, NC--USC Aiken (13-10, 5-7 PBC) connected on a season-high 12 three-pointers in pulling away from the home-standing UNC Pembroke Lady Braves (7-16, 1-11 PBC) 80-60 in women's Peach Belt Conference basketball on Monday night at the Jones Athletic Center. The game, originally scheduled from January 28, was postponed due to the ice storm.

USCA's previous best from long range was 10 triples in a 78-53 win over this same UNC Pembroke at "The Courthouse" on January 14. 

The Lady Pacers have now won nine-straight over UNC Pembroke and improve to 32-6 versus North Division opponents over the past four seasons. 

USC Aiken opened to a quick 7-2 start on a pair of free throws by Lana Mandic at 16:13. It was Mandic's lone points of the game, but she did pull down a team-high six rebounds. 

Kristin Vaughan's jumper at 13:23 trimmed the margin to a single point at 7-6 before the Lady Pacers went on a 15-4 run to create some separation. Five-straight points from Benazura Serbecic followed by back-to-back three-pointers by Gezel Virella and Kasey Mills built the cushion that Haylee Reichert capped with a bucket at 10:32 to make it 22-10. 

Reichert finished with a career-high 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the field. Mills, who entered the game ranked second in the PBC from beyond the arc at 42.6 percent, canned 3-of-5 attempts to finish with 11 points. Virella and Serbecic each added five points for USCA. 

Vaughan's basket with 3:55 on the clock cut the lead back under double figures at 29-21, but it would be the last field goal for UNCP for the next eight minutes. USCA closed the half on an 8-4 run including a trey by Mills with 36 ticks remaining to take a commanding 37-25 lead at the break

Katie Gebhardt and Sarah Kendrick drained long range triples, the latter at 17:01, to push the bulge to 45-28, before UNCP finally ended its field goal drought on Danielle Richardson's bucket in the paint at 16:06. 

Kendrick was 6-of-10 from the field including 2-of-3 from deep for a team-high 16 points. Gebhardt finished with three points and two boards in a career-best 19 minutes of action. 

Richardson's 11 points combined with Natasha Stotler's 29 to account for two-thirds of the team's 60 points. UNCP played without its starting point guard Lindsay Bartholf (13.7 ppg, 5.3 apg). 

Back-to-back buckets by Richardson cut the Lady Pacer lead back under double digits at 47-38 with 11:32 to play, but on the ensuing possession, freshman Shannon Coyle drained a triple from the top of the key to push it back to a 50-38 lead. Coyle, who entered the game with 12 points all season, hit 4-of-6 from downtown for a career-high 12 points as USCA placed five players in double figures. 

UNC Pembroke got within striking distance one more time on Stotler's bucket at 5:14 to make it 63-52, but the Lady Pacers out scored UNCP 17-8 the rest of the way including two triples by Coyle to pull away to the 80-60 win. 

USC Aiken shot 44.3 percent for the game (27-of-61) including 52.2 percent from deep (12-of-23) and 82.4 percent at the stripe (14-of-17). 

UNC Pembroke hit 37.2 percent of its shots from the field (16-of-43) and 71.4 percent from downtown (5-of-7). The Lady Braves entered the game as the worst free throw shooting team in the conference at 61.5 percent, but connected on 23-of-24 attempts for 95.8 percent. 

USC Aiken returns home to "The Courthouse" to host conference rival USC Spartanburg on Wednesday, February 18 at 5:30 PM. 

SCORING:
USC Aiken (80): Sarah Kendrick 16, Erica Larsen 13, Haylee Reichert 13, Shannon Coyle 12, Kasey Mills 11, Gezel Virella 5, Benazura Serbecic 5, Katie Gebhardt 3, Lana Mandic 2

UNC Pembroke (60): Natasha Stotler 29, Danielle Richardson 11, Kristin Vaughan 9, Koral Stache 5, Sharkeysha Midgette 2, Tisha Douglas 2, Mallory Wegmann 2.
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