Spoiled Ending

Spoiled Ending

COLUMBUS, Ga. – To the victors go the spoils, which defined Saturday afternoon's match-up between the Georgia Southwestern Lady Hurricanes and the Columbus State Lady Cougars. The winner on Saturday in Columbus would secure second place in the PBC West Division and the last higher seed available for the Peach Belt Conference Tournament. The Lady 'Canes were unable to capture those spoils as they dropped the game 64-54.

The usually high-scoring 'Canes would only muster up 54 points, which was 20 points less than their season average. It was poor shooting in all three major categories as the Blue & Gold would shoot 28.4% (21-74) from the field, 3-13 (23.1%) from beyond the arc and 45.0 (9-20) from the charity stripe.

Junior forward Adrian Randall was the only Lady Hurricane to score in double figures. The native of Brooklyn would score 15 points and grab nine points in the losing effort.  Her 7-13 shooting was the anomaly as the rest of the GSW starts would score a combined 28 points on 10-50 (20.0%) shooting for the game.  Starting point guard, Tania Walters, would register a career-high twelve rebounds in addition to her six points and three assists.

Columbus State's Dominique Gilbert, Letecia Davenport and Asha Alexander would combine to score 38 of the Lady Cougars' 64 total points. Gilbert would lead CSU in rebounding with ten rebounds and in blocks with five.

The Lady Hurricanes would lead at halftime 34-32 in part to the ten turnovers they forced in the game's first twenty minutes. GSW came out blistering as they scored the game's first eleven points. Coach Britsky and company would go on to score 17 of the game's first 25 points, and they would lead by nine with six minutes to go to halftime. CSU's 11-4 run over the final 6:12 would put them right back into the game.

The Lady Cougars would score six points in the first 1:45 of the second half to take the four-point lead. The home team would never relinquish the lead as Columbus State would go on to score the 10-point decision in their favor.

The regular season finale loss finalizes the GSW's regular season record at 18-8 (10-7 PBC). This sets the program's record for most wins in a regular season in the NCAA Division II era. Yet, the Lady Hurricanes will have unfinished business as they will play in the first round of the PBC Tournament next week. Their opportunity for their first-ever post season victory in the NCAA Division II era will Lander University. The game against the PBC East's second seed will be on Thursday, March 1st at 3 p.m. on the campus of Columbus State University.