Box Score Box Score
GREENWOOD, S.C. - USC Aiken and Lander were tied at intermission, but a strong second half by the 10th-ranked Bearcats derailed any hopes of a USC Aiken upset victory as the Pacers fell 74-52 to Lander in Peach Belt Conference women's basketball action on Wednesday evening at Horne Arena.
USC Aiken concludes its 2009-10 regular season with an overall record of 15-12. The Pacers were 10-8 in their PBC campaign.
The Pacers are the third seed in the Peach Belt Conference East and they will open the 2010 Peach Belt Conference Tournament at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 2 against the PBC East No. 2. USC Aiken will travel to either Lander or Francis Marion in the first round of the tournament. Both have one league game left.
Lander is now 23-2 overall. They are presently 16-1 in PBC action in the 2009-10 season.
Lander scored the first bucket of the contest, but USC Aiken outscored the Bearcats 14-8 over the opening minutes of the game to hold a 14-8 lead with 14:40 remaining in the first half. The Pacer advantage was seven at 19-12 after a Daniela Tarailo (Crown Point, Ind./Crown Point) jumper with 10:15 left in the first half of play.
Lander would battle back over the next 10 minutes to hold a slight two-point lead at 29-27 with 25 seconds until intermission. After a steal by Tarailo, USC Aiken's Catherine Cain (Dayton, Ohio/Ohio University) nailed a jumper at the first half buzzer to send the two teams into the locker rooms with the score even at 29-29.
USC Aiken collected the opening basket of the second half to go up by two, but the nationally-ranked Bearcats outscored the Pacers 19-8 over the inaugural minutes of the second half to own a 48-37 lead with 12:49 left in regulation.
USC Aiken would not let the Bearcats run away with things in the early going of the second half by going on an 8-3 run over the next five minutes to cut the Lander lead to six at 51-45 with 7:44 left in the contest. In the end, that would be as close would be able to get with Lander emerging with the 22-point win.
USC Aiken was led in its loss to the Bearcats by Cain and Kendra Chandler (Aiken, S.C./Aiken). Both players concluded the Pacers' final regular season game of the year with 14 points each. Ironically, both were 6-for-11 from the field in the game.
Lindsay Sundberg (Mansfield, Conn./E.O. Smith) was the final Pacer in double figures with 10 points. Sundberg hit two three-pointers.
Pacer floor general Triahna Harris (Springfield, Va./West Springfield) ended the game with seven assists.
Shannon McKever led the vaunted Bearcat attack in the game, finishing the evening with a double-double with 20 points and 13 rebounds. She also had five blocks and two steals. The double-double was her 12th of the year.
USC Aiken as a team shot 36.1 percent. The Bearcats ended the game having shot a collective 52.5 percent.
