Women's Basketball Southern Conference

SoCon Women's Basketball Results from Saturday, November 22

Georgia Southern Tops USC Aiken 61-58

STATESBORO, Ga. Lee DuBose scored a career-high 18 points, 15 in the second-half, and Kellie Tiller added a career-best 15 points to lead Georgia Southern past USC Aiken 61-58 Saturday night in Hanner Fieldhouse.
Georgia Southern (1-0) raced out to an early 15-point lead at 22-7 when DuBose hit her only first-half bucket at the 9:21 mark. USC Aiekn (2-1) answered with a 12 run to knot the score at 24 on two Sarah Kendrick free throws with 1:06 to go in the stanza. Tiller?s trey at the buzzer gave the Eagles a 27-24 halftime advantage.

GSU came out strong in the second half, opening on a 14-2 spurt and took a 41-26 lead with 16 minutes left in the game. Once again, the Pacers battled back, rattling off a 19-2 run over the next five and a half minutes and claimed a 45-43 advantage on Benazura Serbecic?s bucket with 10:36 left.

After a Dana Benemon layup tied the score a47 with 7:50 left, DuBose hit two consecutive three-pointers to give the Eagles a six-point cushion. The Pacers cut the lead to as close as two and trailed 60-58 with 26 seconds to go, but DuBose split a pair of free throws to provide the final margin.

Kasey Mills led the Pacers with 21 points on 9-of-12 shooting, and Erica Larsen provided 15 points. The Eagles and Pacers battled to a draw on the boards with 40 each and the two teams combined for 61 turnovers.

Georgia Southern returns to action on Tuesday night, hosting 10th-ranked Georgia at 7:00 p.m. in Hanner Fieldhouse.

FURMAN FALLS 58-48 IN BASKETBALL SEASON OPENER

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island -- Furman's Lady Paladin basketball team dropped
its season opener 58-48 to the BIG EAST's Providence College Saturday
afternoon at Alumni Gym in Providence, R.I.

Furman was in the thick of the game in the first half, even leading on two
occasions, but an offense that sputtered in the first period stalled in
the second, and the Friars got the win at home.

The Lady Paladins took their first lead in the game on a Laney Harris
three pointer with 14:10 left in the first period. The Friars answered by
making four three pointers in the remainder of the period, but Furman
evened the score at 29 when sophomore Princess Wells hit the back end of a
two shot foul. The Furman press forced a turnover on the inbounds play
and sophomore Mivvi Strickland was fouled on the layup attempt.
Strickland made the back half of her two point foul to give the Lady
Paladins a 30-29 advantage, but Furman was held scoreless in the last two
minutes and trailed 34-30 entering the halftime locker room.

The Friars connected on 57.1% of their field goals in the first period
(12-21) and hit five-of-nine three pointers (.571), while Furman made
11-of-26 (.423) from the field and one-of-one from three point range.

Furman started the second period with a quick basket by senior Orion Wake,
to pull within two (34-32) of Providence, but the field goal proved to be
one of only six in the second period, leading to a .261 field goal
shooting percentage for the half. After Wake?s field goal at the 15:33
mark, the Lady Paladin did not connect on another one until Deshara
Shealey made a jumper with 11:11 left in the game. At that point, Furman
was down by eight and the Providence lead held around 10 for the remainder
of the game.

"I thought Providence executed well," said Furman coach Sam Dixon after
the loss. "We didn't get the ball inside enough."

The Lady Paladins were led by Shealey, who scored 17 points and claimed
four rebounds on the day. Orion Wake added seven points and a team-high
eight boards, while senior Kim Lawrence gathered in five of Furman?s 14
steals.

Providence was paced by Kristin Quinn?s 19 points, five three-pointer
effort and Jill Furstenburg?s 15 points and eight assists.

The Lady Paladins are on the road again next Wednesday, with a 7 p.m. game
at Gardner-Webb in Boiling Springs, N.C.