Box Score GREENWOOD, S.C. – Sophomore Emry Tsitouris hit a shot in the lane as time expired, giving the University of South Carolina Aiken women's basketball team a come-from-behind 68-66 victory over Lincoln Memorial Saturday afternoon.
The Pacers are now 1-1 on the young season.
Tsitouris accounted for a team-best 17 points and grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds as USC Aiken gave head coach Mike Brandt his 499th career victory.
Rookie Baylea Loven came off the bench to nail 14 points while Stephanie Ball and Alexis Ware accounted for 13 and 11 points, respectively.
Ball led the way with a game-high eight assists while playing 33 minutes. She also registered a game-best four steals.
USC Aiken jumped out to a 17-10 lead after the first quarter. Ware opened the game with a three-point basket off a pass from Kassy Johannsen. The Pacers increased the lead to five after Ball buried a three-pointer and Kate Duff hit the first of two free throws for a 7-2 advantage.
Brandt's team was ahead 14-10 before Tsitouris canned a free throw with 1:22 to go in the first quarter. With 56 seconds to go, Loven connected on a jumper off a pass from Duff for a seven-point margin.
However, LMU rallied back to take a lead at the break. USC Aiken was up 21-14, but the Railsplitters went on a 5-0 run. LMU took the lead with 2:42 to play before intermission at 25-24 and managed to take a 34-28 lead into halftime.
Brandt's team trimmed the deficit to three at the end of the third period as Tsitouris canned a jumper off a Ball assist, making it 46-43.
LMU led by as many as eight at 53-45 with 7:05 to go. However, the Pacers slowly trimmed the deficit. Jasmine Coach converted an old-fashioned three-point play, making it 53-50. On two separate occasions, USC Aiken cut the deficit to just one. The first came when Ball nailed a three-point shot, bringing the Pacers to within one at 56-55. The second came when Carly Gilreath hit a jumper, making it 58-57. USC Aiken took the lead when Loven hit a shot in the paint for a 59-58 advantage.
The Railsplitters regained the lead and held a 64-62 edge with 57 ticks on the clock. Loven missed a three-pointer, but came up with the offensive rebound. She promptly connected on a baseline jumper, knotting the contest at 64-64.
Tsitouris made a pair of free throws with 21 seconds to play, but the Railsplitters tied it at 66 with 16 seconds to play.
After a time-out, the Pacers got the ball to Ball. She worked the clock before breaking down the defense. Ball got to the baseline on the right side of the court. As the defense collapsed, she scooped a pass to Tsitouris, who netted the short jumper as time expired for the victory.
USC Aiken connected on 25-of-64 shots from the floor (39.1 percent), including a seven-of-19 effort from downtown (36.8 percent). The squad was nearly automatic from the charity stripe, burying 11-of-13 (84.6 percent), including nine-of-10 from Tsitouris.
The Pacers forced 24 turnovers while committing 17. Brandt's team converted the 24 miscues into 29 points. The designated home team also accounted for 24 second-chance points compared to 11 by the Railsplitters. USC Aiken posted 24 bench points compared to five by LMU.
The Pacers return to action Wednesday when they host Wingate. The game is slated to start at 5:30 p.m. Live stats, video and audio will be available at PacerSports.com.
