Box Score
PEMBROKE – What seemed like a comfortable 20-point lead early in the third quarter turned worrisome for the UNC Pembroke women's basketball team down the stretch, but the Black & Gold withstood a few late runs from visiting Young Harris to escape with a 63-54 victory Saturday afternoon at Lumbee Guaranty Bank Court in a Peach Belt Conference (PBC) battle.
The triumph runs the Braves' (10-4, 5-2 PBC) current winning streak to three and improves the home side to 6-1 in Pembroke this season. The Mountain Lions (6-7, 2-4 PBC) are now winless in the last four meetings with UNCP and have dropped four of their last five overall.
A 16-point Black & Gold halftime edge was quickly stretched to 20 just over 90 seconds into the third period, capped off by a pair of
Avery Locklear freebies at the 8:28 mark. The guests responded with a 14-4 run, knocking down four long balls in a span of 1:40 on consecutive trips down the floor.
Blair Silliman answered with a 3-pointer of her own to put the Braves up 57-44 at the end of three.
In the final frame, Young Harris cut the Black & Gold lead down to seven with 2:24 to play behind a 10-4 run. But the UNCP defense limited the Mountain Lions to just one of their final nine shooting and buried a pair of free throws in the final minute to put the game away.
Brianna Baham tied her season high with 13 points, including an 8-for-9 effort at the charity stripe.
Nyla Allen and
Ebone Stevens each tacked on 10 points and Allen grabbed a team-best eight rebounds. Stevens was 3-for-6 from behind the arc to improve her season 3-point shooting percentage to 44.3, second-best in the PBC.
The Braves outscored Young Harris 19-4 at the free throw line, shooting 76 percent to the guests' 44-percent clip. UNCP turned 18 Mountain Lion turnovers into 21 points and used an 18-8 bench advantage to propel into first in the PBC East Division.
Up just three (19-16) at the end of the first, the Black & Gold outscored the guests 25-12 in the second stanza, closing on a 13-3 run. The 44-point first-half outburst ties the most points scored in an opening half this season for UNCP.
The Braves now play host to No. 17 North Georgia in a rare Monday afternoon affair at Lumbee Guaranty Bank Court. Tipoff is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on the front end of a women's-men's doubleheader. The Nighthawks (13-2, 5-1 PBC) are second in the PBC West Division race and are winners of seven of their last eight.
