Box Score FLORENCE, S.C.--In a classic battle between a pair of North Division rivals, Francis Marion (6-10, 2-3 PBC) stagnated the Lady Pacers' offense for three quarters of the contest to pull off a 57-55 stunner in women's Peach Belt Conference basketball. USC Aiken (12-6, 2-2 PBC) dropped its first contest of the season to a team with a losing record. 

Francis Marion defeated USC Aiken for the third-straight time and leads the all-time series 37-14. The Patriots snap a three-game losing streak to the Lady Pacers at the Smith University Center. 

Junior guard Danielle Moore scored FMU's first seven points to race out in front 7-3. USC Aiken, however, settled down connecting on eight of their first 11 shots from the field to push in front 17-8 on Lana Mandic's bucket with 12:46 remaining. The Patriots went nearly seven minutes without a field goal until Shonelle Downer's lay-up with 9:41 left until half. 

Moore led all scorers with 18 points on 6-of-12 from the field and 6-of-10 at the stripe. Mandic paced USCA with 15 points and seven rebounds on 6-of-11 shooting. 

The Lady Pacers suddenly went ice cold from the field missing their next 11 shots from the field, thus watching their nine-point lead evaporate into a 19-19 tie on Creshenda Singletary's free throw with 4:18 on the clock. Kasey Mills' driving lay-up ended a 10-minute field goal drought and put the Lady Pacers back ahead 21-19. Jennifer Howard's only bucket of the first half was at the buzzer to give FMU the 26-24 halftime edge. USCA is now 0-5 when trailing at the break. 

Singletary, the conference's fifth leading scorer at 14.8 ppg, finished with six points and seven boards. Mills poured in 12 points for the Lady Pacers to go with six assists and seven steals. Benazura Serbecic was the third Lady Pacer in double figures with 11 points and nine rebounds. 

Howard's three-pointer at 13:53 of the second half pushed the Patriot lead to its largest of the game 39-33. USCA countered with back-to-back treys from Beata Szabo and Eboni Speller over the next minute to knot the score at 39-39. Serbecic converted a jumper in the paint at 11:35 following a FMU turnover to take its first lead of the second half 41-39. The back-to-back triples were the only ones for USCA which entered the game ranked second in the league in three-point field goal percentage (35.1).

Howard scored nine of her 12 points in the second half. As a team, FMU committed 28 turnovers but forced 25 Lady Pacer miscues. The Patriots also out rebounded USCA for just the third time this year 28-27. 

Following two and one half minutes of turnovers and missed shots by both teams, a fast break lay-up by Singletary ignited the decisive 9-2 run as Moore's three-point play put the Patriots in front 50-43 with 6:31 remaining. 

Back-to-back lay-ups by Mills trimmed the margin to 50-47, but the Lady Pacers could never quite get over the hump. A pair of Mills' charity tosses drew USCA within a single point at 52-51 with 1:29 to play, by Howard hit another huge shot 20 seconds later to make it a 54-51 game. 

Leading 56-53 with 7.9 remaining, Brittany Young connected on both her free throw attempts to finish off USCA. FMU finished 14-of-23 from the stripe. 

Having concluded their three-game road swing, USC Aiken returns home to "The Courthouse" to host Georgia College & State University on Saturday, January 22 at 5:30 PM. It marks the first home game for the Lady Pacers since January 5. USCA will honor its 2004 NCAA Division II National Champion golf team that night.

Newspaper Box Score
USC Aiken vs Francis Marion University
01/19/05 5:30 PM at Florence, SC (Smith University Center)

FRANCIS MARION UNIVERSITY 57, USC AIKEN 55

USC AIKEN (12-6 (2-2 PBC))
Mandic, Lana 6-11 3-4 15; Mills, Kasey 5-12 2-2 12; Serbecic, Benazura 5-10 1-2 11; Grant, Nola 3-6 2-2 8; Szabo, Beata 1-2 0-0 3; Speller, Eboni 1-3 0-0 3; Gebhardt, Katie 1-4 1-2 3; Allee, Mindy 0-3 0-1 0. Totals 22-51 9-13 55.

FRANCIS MARION UNIVERSITY (6-10 (2-3 PBC)) 
Moore, Danielle 6-12 6-10 18; Howard, Jennifer 4-8 3-5 12; Young, Brittany 2-4 3-4 7; Dewell, Jennifer 2-5 0-1 6; Singletary,Creshenda 2-6 2-3 6; Downer, Shonelle 2-2 0-0 4; Goff, Vanessa 2-5 0-0 4; Etheredge, Courtenay 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 20-43 14-23 57.

USC Aiken....................... 24 31 - 55
Francis Marion……….... 26 31 - 57

3-point goals-USC Aiken 2-10 (Speller, Eboni 1-1; Szabo, Beata 1-1; Gebhardt, Katie 0-1; Allee, Mindy 0-2; Mills, Kasey 0-4; Mandic, Lana 0-1), Francis Marion University 3-14 (Dewell, Jennifer 2-5; Howard, Jennifer 1-5; Singletary,Creshenda 0-2; Etheredge, Courtenay 0-1; Moore, Danielle 0-1). Fouled out--USC Aiken-None, Francis Marion University-None. Rebounds-USC Aiken 27 (Serbecic, Benazura 9), Francis Marion University 28 (Singletary,Creshenda 7). Assists-USC Aiken 16 (Mills, Kasey 6), Francis Marion University 8 (Young, Brittany 5). Total fouls-USC Aiken 23, Francis Marion University 20. A-376.