Record-Breaking Season Continues

Record-Breaking Season Continues

AMERICUS, Ga. – The record-breaking 2011-2012 season for the Georgia Southwestern Lady Hurricanes continued Monday evening with an individual milestone being passed. Jessica Bivins would score her 1,000th point of her college career as the Lady Hurricanes won their NCAA Division II record 15th game as they downed the visiting Lady Cougars of Columbus State (12-9, 7-5 PBC) by a score of 77-65.

Her 242 points so far in her senior season at GSW has given her 818 career points in a Lady Hurricane uniform. Those three years of scoring plus her 184 points scored as a freshman at Stetson University pushed her into the 1,000 point club.

Bivins, who finished with 14 points, six rebounds and four assists, was one of four double-digit scorers for the Lady 'Canes. Terra Branch (19 points, five rebounds and two assists) led all scorers. She and Bivins were backed up by Tania Walters (16 points and five assists) and Jessica Jones (15 points and three rebounds).

The quartet was part of a GSW attack that shot a respectable 30-64 (46.9%) from the field. Georgia Southwestern won the rebounding battle by four boards and recorded a season-high seven blocks. The defense also limited the Lady Cougar scoring attack to just one starter scoring in double digits and 38.2% (21-55) shooting from the field.

Columbus State forward Dominique Gilbert was the rock of consistency for the Lady Cougars. She would finish the game with 13 points, 14 rebounds, three blocks and two steals in the loss. Guard Lauren Grisham was the only other Columbus player in double-digit points as she scored ten points in 17 minutes played off the bench.

Coach Britsky and company would take the 9-7 lead on a Tania Walters three-pointer after just five minutes. The Walters bucket started a 16-0 GSW run over the course of the next 4:50. The 'Canes would never relinquish that lead as they would build upon that lead, lose a large portion of said leave and then rebuild their lead. The Blue & Gold would lead by as much as 13 points in the first half before settling for a ten-point lead at halftime with a score of 42-32.

The halftime lead would be pushed to 20 points, the biggest GSW lead of the night, thanks to a 14-4 run by the Lady Hurricanes in the opening 4:34 of the second half. Yet the Lady Hurricanes would never settle into an offensive groove completely as Columbus State would cut the lead to six points with 4:18 left to play. GSW would keep the Lady Cougars at bat for the final minutes of the game to earn the 12-point victory.

With her 19 points scored on Monday evening, senior guard Terra Brach is also approaching the 1,000 point club. The Athens native needs to score 52 points over the next five games to become only the second player to score 1,000 points in a four-year GSW career in the NCAA Division II era.

The victory continues to improve the GSW program's NCAA Division II era best overall record. At 15-6 (7-5 PBC), the Lady Hurricanes tied their program record for most conference wins at seven. GSW went 7-11 in the PBC in the 2009-10 season, which was also the season the program made their one and only Peach Belt Conference Tournament appearance.

The Lady 'Canes will look to continue their record book altering ways on Saturday, February 11th. Georgia Southwestern will play host to the Montevallo Lady Falcons at 5:30 p.m. for homecoming in the Storm Dome.