GREENWOOD, S.C. – The University of South Carolina Aiken women's basketball team opened its 2010-11 campaign with an emphatic 62-36 victory over Carson-Newman on Saturday evening at Horne Arena.

The game was USC Aiken's first of two contests over the weekend at Horne Arena as part of the Lander Lady Bearcats DII Tip-Off Classic. The Pacers will square off against current national No. 3 Tusculum at 2 p.m. tomorrow (Sunday, Nov. 14) at Horne Arena.

USC Aiken (1-0) never trailed in its 26-point victory over perennial South Atlantic Conference power Carson-Newman (0-1) on Saturday.

USC Aiken entered intermission with a 19-point, 34-15 lead. The Pacers would begin the second half with a Nakia Pinkney lay-up (Orangeburg, S.C./Orangeburg-Wilkinson). The lay-up garnered USC Aiken a 21-point lead.

From there, Carson-Newman would be unable to cut the Pacer lead to less than 20 points with USC Aiken leading by 32 points at 60-28 after a Hannah DeGraffinreed (Raleigh, N.C./Merrimack) three-point play with just over 4:30 left in the game.

USC Aiken's defense held the Eagles to just 12 field goals in total in the game. Carson-Newman hit upon just 26.1 percent (12-of-46) of their shot attempts in the contest.

The Pacers shot 37.1 percent (23-of-62) in the victory as a team. The Pacers connected upon exactly 40 percent (6-of-15) of their three-point attempts in the resounding victory.

USC Aiken was 10-for-12 (83.3 percent) from the charity stripe in the game.

Two Pacers finished in double figures in Saturday's victory with Pinkney leading the way with 16 total points. Pinkney knocked down three 3-pointers and was 6-for-11 from the field overall.

Triahna Harris (Springfield, Va./West Springfield) was the final Pacer in double figures with 11 points. She also dealt out five assists and recorded five steals in the contest.

DeGraffinreed just missed on a double-double with nine rebounds and eight points. USC Aiken sophomore center Tiffani Moody (Raleigh, N.C./Ohio Valley) ended her first regular season game in a Pacer uniform with 10 rebounds, which included four offensive boards.

Carson-Newman did not have any players in double figures with Whitney Moody leading the Eagles with seven points.