AIKEN, S.C. – The University of South Carolina Aiken women's basketball team garnered a 65-53 victory over Georgia Southwestern Saturday evening in a Peach Belt Conference contest.

The Pacers are now 9-7 on the year, including a 5-2 mark against conference competition. The Hurricanes fall to 10-4 overall and 5-2 in league play.

Rachelle Aupont paced the team with a game-best 17 points. Kwajelin Farrar accounted for a double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds while Jasmine Coach narrowly missed out on her first career double-double with nine points and 11 boards. Emily Waters came off the bench to total eight points and eight rebounds, along with a pair of blocks and steals.

Head coach Mark Miller's team jumped out to a 21-7 lead after the first quarter of action. Leading 8-4, Waters tallied a jumper as did Duff. With the score at 12-7, USC Aiken embarked on a 9-0 spurt over the final 2:50 to close out the quarter. During the spurt, Aupont connected on back-to-back three-pointers. Duff hit a free throw and later converted a lay-up for the 14-point margin.

The Hurricanes sliced the margin to 10 points at 27-17, but Gilreath nailed a step-back three-pointer for a 30-17 margin at the 4:09 mark of the second period. Leading 30-19, Carter buried a jumper and Farrar hit a shot in the lane for a 34-19 margin at intermission.

Aupont's first three-point basket marked her 1,000^th career point, including her two seasons prior to attending USC Aiken.

The Hurricanes trimmed the margin to eight with 1:27 left in the third, but Aupont took a pass from Gilreath and calmly connected from downtown for a 47-36 advantage. A pair of free throws with 46 seconds to play in the stanza pushed it to a 13-point margin.

The last five points from the third quarter just marked the start of a 12-0 spurt by Miller's team. During the rest of the run, Carter hit a jumper while Coach converted an old-fashioned three-point play. Farrar finished off the run with a jumper in the paint off a pass from Coach for the 56-36 working margin.

Although Georgia Southwestern pulled within 11 with 4:30 to play, Aupont answered with six straight points, putting the game out of reach.

For the game, USC Aiken hit 25-of-72 from the floor (34.7 percent), including five-of-15 from downtown (33.3 percent). Miller's team out-rebounded the visitors 55-40. USC Aiken outscored the visitors 32-30 in the paint and had 21 second-chance points compared to 10 by the Hurricanes. Miller's squad also held a 36-20 advantage in points off the bench.

The Pacers return to action Saturday when they host Montevallo at 1:30 p.m. Live stats an video will be available at PacerSports.com.