AIKEN, S.C. – The University of South Carolina Aiken women's basketball team overcame an early deficit and nearly pulled off a win before falling on a last-second shot to Livingstone, 74-73.

The Pacers are now 4-4 while Livingstone improves to 7-0 on the season.

Head coach Mike Brandt's team was paced by Amaura Brandt, who poured in a game and career-high 26 points. She buried eight-of-10 shots from behind the three-point stripe and netted both of her charity tosses.

Kate Duff scored 14 points while Mariah Durian and Mackenzie Reese each hit for eight markers. 

Reese collected a team-high nine rebounds. 

USC Aiken hit 23-of-57 shots from the floor (40.4 percent) while holding the Lady Blue Bears to 24-of-73 shooting from the field (32.9 percent). The squad drained 16-of-24 shots from the three-point line (66.7 percent) while holding the visitors to 25 percent on six-of-24 shooting. However, the Lady Blue Bears hit 20-of-24 foul shots while the Pacers connected on 11-of-13. Livingstone also out-rebounded USC Aiken 48-36, including a 21-8 margin on the offensive glass.

The Pacers trailed 14-3 at the 14:43 mark before Durian canned a deep three-pointer off a pass from Kately Grisillo. The squad trimmed the margin to six on a lay-up from Emry Tsitouris. Brandt's three-pointer with 9:55 to go sliced the deficit to just two at 17-15, but the visitors managed to regain a seven-point lead just prior to the under-eight time-out.

Tsitouris hit a pair of charity tosses and Brandt drilled another three-pointer, cutting the deficit to two at 24-22. The Lady Blue Bears made it a five-point spread with 15 seconds to play in the opening stanza, but Carly Gilreath took a pass from Alexis Ware and buried a 24-footer as time expired, making it a 32-30 contest heading into intermission.

Coming out of halftime, Stephanie Ball connected on a three-pointer, sparking a 9-0 run by the home team. Durian hit a pair of free throws prior to Brandt and Reese draining back-to-back three-point shots for a 41-32 advantage.

Livingstone trimmed the deficit to one, 45-44, with 12:02 to play, but Brandt found the bottom of the net for a 48-44 working margin. 

The Pacers pushed the lead to 13 with 8:38 to play. During the spurt, Kate Duff made a lay-up just prior to Brandt hitting back-to-back three-point buckets.

USC Aiken held a 10-point advantage with 5:26 to play after Duff nailed a shot from downtown, but the visitors cut the deficit to two with 44 seconds to play. Duff hit a pair of free throws with 30 seconds to go, but the visitors made another jumper.

Brandt was fouled off a pass and hit both free throws, but Livingstone connected on another jumper, making it a two-point contest with 13 seconds to play. USC Aiken missed the front end of a one-and-one situation, but forced a time-out with three seconds to play.

The Lady Blue Bears' Previous Roberts took the inbounds pass, dribbled twice to her left and pulled up for a 24-foot shot that found the bottom of the net for the one-point victory.

The Pacers return to action on Saturday, Dec., 13, when they host Limestone in a 1:30 p.m., contest.