RELATED: Women's Basketball Shuts Down Francis Marion, 73-61

PEMBROKE – In an aggressive contest that saw 50 combined team fouls, PBC-East leading Armstrong Atlantic handed the UNC Pembroke women's basketball team an 82-56 loss inside of the English E. Jones Center on Saturday afternoon.

With the win, Armstrong (13-6, 8-5 PBC) sweeps the regular-season series, after earning a 72-56 victory over the Lady Braves (7-13, 3-10) earlier this season in Savannah, Ga. The Pirates have now won three-straight against the Black and Gold, and improve to 26-14 in the all-time series.

Today's game was the UNCP Play 4 Kay day in support of the Kay Yow Cancer Fund. Throughout the game donations were collected and amounted to nearly $1,600 for the Kay Yow Cancer Fun and Gibson Cancer Center.

Both teams racked up over 10 fouls apiece within the first 20 minutes of action, with the Lady Braves taking 14 first-half fouls. The Pirates started the day on a 7-0 run, keeping UNCP scoreless for nearly the first three minutes. The Lady Braves worked their way back into the game, cutting the deficit to three, 13-10, after a tip in from Avae' Hardy, but Armstrong got hot again with an 18-7 run to stretch its lead out to 31-18. Closing out the opening half, Airico Williams hit the Lady Braves' first 3-pointer of the night, as Armstrong took a 42-24 advantage into the locker rooms.

Within the first 30 seconds of the second half, Kierra Haney got her fourth foul of the game, bringing Mauri Wells to the line for Armstrong. Wells hit both free throw shots to give the Pirates a 20-point lead. UNCP put up an effort at a comeback in the last five minutes, but the deficit was too much and the Pirates grabbed their fourth-straight win.

"It was a struggle from the opening half. I thought they came out and played very well early. I didn't think our defense was very good, but our offense just struggled. We couldn't put the ball in the hole, and when we got good shots, we couldn't score. They're a little difficult to score in the post because they've got some size and strength in there," said UNCP head coach John Haskins. "Then as we went on, I thought we got impatient, I didn't think we executed or made them work hard enough defensively. So that's a bad combination."

Armstrong was led by a quartert of double-digit scorers, as Stephenie Coney, Bryonna Davis, Brigitta Barta and Dee Hayword turned in 10 points apiece. Wells was one point shy of a double-double with nine points and 10 rebounds. The Pirates kept their bench players active, getting 42 points from non-starters throughout the evening.

Despite the loss, freshman Phoenicia Lawson grabbed a career-high 11 rebounds, including nine defensive boards. Jazmine Kemp led the way for the UNCP offense with 13 points, while Haney and Hardy contributed 12 points and 11 points, respectively.

UNCP returns to the court on Thursday, as the Lady Braves travel south down I-95 for a matchup with Francis Marion (10-8, 5-7) at 5:30 p.m. in the Smith University Center.

To watch the full game click HERE.