Demorest, GA – The Piedmont College women’s basketball team held off a 2nd half run by the visiting Panthers of Birmingham-Southern College earlier tonight to take a 76-60 win in Cave Arena moving to 6-1 on the year.
Birmingham-Southern (5-5) will now play in tomorrow’s consolation game of the Cancer Awareness Tournament at 5:00 pm ET against Salem (1-5) while Piedmont will take on Emory (6-2) in the event’s championship game tipping off at 7:00 pm ET.
All action will be covered live on the Mane Event Broadcasting Network with video, audio, and stats available for both contests while Piedmont’s 7:00 pm ET championship game will also be carried on WCON Radio, FM 107.7 and AM 1450.
Three-pointers from TAYLOR SWOSZOWSKI and MARY KATE RUSHTON higlighted an 8-1 run to start the action tonight for Piedmont as the Lady Lions raced out to an early lead over the visiting Panthers. Piedmont had already defeated BSC earlier this season with a 68-63 result in Birmingham which opened the 2014-15 season for the two programs.
A spinning,turn-around bank shot from BRIANNA BARRETT at the midway point put the Lady Lions up 16-13 after BSC had closed to within one as Piedmont stayed ahead throughout the contest after surging in front at the start. The story in the first half though belonged to Piedmont’s MARY KATE RUSHTON who had 14 points in the opening period hitting on three of her first four tries from downtown while going 4-of-7 overall in the first 20 minutes.
With Rushton’s strong showing and a buzzer beating layup from Barrett, Piedmont opened up a 17-point lead at the intermission, up 42-25. Rushton would pick up 13 boards to put in a double-double performance before the night was done, but Birmingham-Southern was not done at half making a 13-5 run to start the 2nd period sparked by a Halle Knowles three.
Knowles finished with 14 points, tied for a team-high along with Brianna DaBaets as the Panthers cut the lead to just nine less than five minutes into the second half. However, Piedmont’s CARLY SALES answered with a layup that stopped the momentum for the visitors and put Piedmont back in front by double-digits, where the Lady Lions would stay the rest of the night.
Sales finished with a game-high 17 on eight-of-12 shooting from the field with all of her tries coming on two-point buckets. Piedmont opened up as large a lead as 19 in the closing minutes, but finished with a 76-60 win at home over the Panthers in the end earning their sixth win of the season.
With the victory, Piedmont also takes a spot in tomorrow night’s Championship Game of the Cancer Awareness Tournament set to tip off at 7:00 pm ET. The Lady Lions will take on Emory University who knocked off Salem College earlier in the night by ten. Salem will play Birmingham-Southern in the event’s Consolation Game set to tip at 5:00 pm ET.
