Box Score
PEMBROKE – Winners of 11-consecutive home games coming in to Wednesday's Peach Belt Conference (PBC) finale, the UNC Pembroke women's basketball squad dropped its first game at Lumbee Guaranty Bank Court since Nov. 27 in a 68-52 setback to rival Francis Marion.
The loss is the third-straight overall for the Braves (15-11, 10-9 PBC), who will enter the upcoming PBC Tournament as the No. 3-seed out of the East Division. That sets up a road quarterfinal contest with the West's No. 2-seed Clayton State.
Francis Marion (17-11, 12-7) ends the regular season on an eight-game winning streak to snag the No. 2-seed in the East. The Patriots last loss came Jan. 28 and they have won 10 of their last 11 after a five-game losing skid in early January.
Brianna Baham featured a team-high 14 points, including a perfect 10-for-10 clip at the charity stripe, and hauled in seven rebounds.
Nyla Allen chipped in 11 points, while senior
Airico Williams recorded her third-career double-double (10 points, 13 rebounds) in her final game in Pembroke.
Shaunice Fulmore canned a game-best 20 for Francis Marion who shot 55.6 percent in the second quarter to outscore UNCP 25-8.
Down by 11 with just over three minutes to play in the opening half, the Black & Gold knocked down a quartet of freebies to pull within seven, but the guests nailed three long balls in the final 101 seconds to haul a 40-24 lead into the locker rooms.
A 1-for-10 performance and an overall 27.3-shooting clip in the second half hampered any attempt at a comeback by the Braves who were just 3-for-17 from behind the arc Wednesday in their second-worst shooting outing this season (28.6 percent).
Saturday's quarterfinal meeting between UNCP and Clayton State will be a rematch of the Dec. 17 meeting in Pembroke when the Braves toppled then-No. 15 Clayton State 76-61 behind a season-high 24 points from
Jasmine Huntley. The Lakers (23-5) are winners of four straight nine of their last 10 overall. Stay tuned to uncpbraves.com for the release of Saturday's game time.
