RELATED: Second-Half Surge Lifts Georgia College Past Women's Basketball

AUGUSTA, Ga. – The UNC Pembroke women's basketball team struggled at the free throw line, shooting just 30 percent from the charity stripe, as GRU Augusta came back in the second half to grab a 63-54 Peach Belt Conference victory on Sunday afternoon inside of the Christenberry Fieldhouse.

The loss marked the third-straight for the Lady Braves (5-6, 1-3 PBC), as the Jaguars (7-4, 3-1) improve to 29-14 in the all-time series.

"I thought that we played hard and competed well for 40 minutes," said UNCP head coach John Haskins. "I felt like offensively we did a good job attacking down the stretch and making some jumpers. We had a lot of issues at the free throw line, but our effort was good. We were playing shorthanded, but the girls gave a good effort, unfortunately we just came up short."

Kamille Horne paced UNCP with a team-high 17 points, while Kierra Haney turned in a double-double effort, finishing with 12 points and 13 rebounds. Dishing the ball out, freshman Jasmine Huntley tallied a game-best six assists. The Lady Braves connected on 21-of-50 (42 percent) of shots from the field, including a 9-of-23 (39.1 percent) success rate from the perimeter. 

Coming off the bench for the Jaguars, Jemimah Ashby led the way totaling19 points on 6-of-14 (42.8 percent) shooting from the floor. Becky Newhouse also turned in double-digit scoring with 14 points to GRU Augusta's winning effort. 

UNCP came out of the break with a seven-point advantage, and stayed on top for the majority of the second half. A 3-point bucket from Ashby at the 3:55 mark tied the score at 52 points apiece, and the Jaguars would take their first lead of the half, 54-52, after consecutive made free throws from Ashby. The Lady Braves were unable to score during the final three minutes of the game, while GRU Augusta pulled away going on a 9-0 run to close out the game.

Huntley scored the first points of the game on a 3-point bucket three minutes into the contest, and less than one minute later Avae' Hardy drained another triple, giving UNCP a 6-2 lead. The Black and Gold controlled the pace the remainder of the opening half, getting eight first-half points from Ashley McCray, who drilled two shots from behind the arc.

The Lady Braves will stay on the road as they head to Americus, Ga., to match up with Georgia Southwestern (5-5, 0-3) in a PBC battle on Friday at 5:30 p.m. inside of the Storm Dome.