AMERICUS - The Georgia Southwestern women's basketball team was outscored 16-4 by North Georgia over the final four minutes of Wednesday evening's game in the Storm Dome, leading to a 74-60 defeat at the hands of the Lady Saints.

GSW ran up a double-digit advantage early against North Georgia, leading 24-12 nine minutes in.

The Lady Saints answered with a 9-2 run over the next four minutes and trailed 26-23 with 7:03 left in the first half.

GSW quickly pushed the margin back to seven points, capped by a Jessica Bivins three-pointer with 5:27 remaining in the period.

NGCSU whittled the Lady Hurricane lead down to two at the break, 34-32.

After Cierra Duhart opened the second half with a bucket for GSW, the Lady Saints went on a 13-2 run to open a seven-point cushion. 

In a game full of momentum shifts, the Lady Hurricanes responded with 12 unanswered points to regain the lead, 50-45, with just under 10 minutes remaining.

Janyce Ealey answered for NGCSU, by scoring the first six points of an 11-0 run.

GSW battled back to pull within two with 4:08 left on the clock, but North Georgia's 16-4 burst ended the comeback.

The Lady Saints finished the game shooting 49 percent from the floor, while GSW shot 38.5 percent. NGCSU pulled down 11 more rebounds (41-30).

Bivins led the Lady Hurricanes with 17 points on 5 of 10 shooting from three-point range.

Ealey paced North Georgia (11-5, 2-3 PBC) with a game-high 22 points. Lindsey Moss added 14 and Jessica Trice scored 10. Moss grabbed a game-high nine rebounds.

Southwestern (8-7, 2-4) travels up the road on Saturday for a 1:30 p.m. contest at Columbus State.