AMERICUS, Ga. – The Georgia Southwestern Lady Hurricanes were looking to avoid their second conference loss in a row as they faced the visiting Lady Saints of North Georgia (10-9, 4-6 PBC). Armed with the PBC's leading scorer, Jaymee Carnes, the Lady Saints faded away in the second half as GSW walked away with the 87-68 win.

The battle of the conference's two highest scorers would go to Carnes, but Terra Branch's 24 points, four steals and three assists won the war for the Georgia Southwestern Lady 'Canes.  Behind Branch was junior forward Adrian Randall who tallied her fourth double-double of the season with 16 points, ten rebounds and four blocks. Rounding out the double-digit scorers for the Blue & Gold was Jessica Jones who contributed ten points, six rebounds and two steals.

Jaymee Carnes was her usual dominant self scoring 29 points, grabbing eleven rebounds and blocking three shots. Her efficient 10-15 shooting from the field and nine of twelve shooting from the foul line was the bright spot for North Georgia in the 19-point loss. Her 66.6% shooting from the field 75.0% shooting from the line overshadowed the rest of the team, which shot 38% from the field and 43% from the foul line.

GSW was able to rekindle their hot shooting as they shot 43.2% from the field, which was their highest percentage in the previous five games. Their 6-13 (46.2%) shooting from beyond the arc was their best shooting from three-point range since their 101-57 victory over Montevallo on December 3. GSW's  15 turnovers was also below their season average of 17.8 turnovers per game.

It was a tale of two halves for Wednesday's action as North Georgia would lead 38-36 at halftime after shooting a scorching 56% from the field and out-rebounding the Lady Hurricanes 20-17 in the game's first 20 minutes.

The Blue & Gold would flip the script on the Lady Saints from the get-go in the second half. Coach Britsky and company would go on a 20-5 run in the first 5:55 of the half to take a commanding fourteen point lead. North Georgia would only get as close as ten points from that point on before succumbing to the Lady Hurricanes by a score of 68-87.

The win puts the Georgia Southwestern record at 13-6 overall and 5-5 in the Peach Belt Conference. The 13 wins so far in the 2011-12 season has already surpassed last season's win total of twelve.  More importantly it puts the Lady 'Canes solely in third place in the PBC West Division with a one-game lead over North Georgia and a two-game lead over fifth place Montevallo. As teams are beginning to jockey for one of the top four spots in the division to be eligible for the PBC Tournament, GSW has taken one more step towards achieving that goal.

The Lady Hurricanes will be back in action this Saturday as they hit the road to take on the Georgia College Bobcats for a 1:30 tip-off.