Box Score

Montgomery, AL -- The Piedmont College women's basketball team staked a spot in the Great South Athletic Conference Tournament Championship game earlier today with a 76-70 victory over the second seeded Panthers of LaGrange.  Piedmont used their stingy field goal percentage defense which has garnered national attention throughout the season to hold the top scoring offense in NCAA Division III to 14 points below their season average.

In a tight first half that followed the close action of the GSAC tournament so far on the day, Piedmont and LaGrange would battle throughout much of the opening period. It was at the 8:32 mark of the first half with the scored notched at 24-24 that a monster block from post presence Sada Wheeler that sparked a 10-2 run from the Lady Lions to put the score at 34-26 PC.

However, the nation's number one scoring offense would not be denied for long as LaGrange answered back with a 11-0 run of their own to take a three-point lead with less than a minute to play in the half. After a Sydney Seitz bucket broke the Panthers' push, Piedmont held strong defensively preventing LaGrange from getting a shot off at the first half buzzer as the score read 37-36 in favor of the Panthers.

Wheeler led the squad through 20 minutes with her nine points and six boards as the Lady Lions trailed by just a single point at the intermission. When the teams came out of the locker rooms for the encore half of action, fans knew they would be in for a treat as a quick Alyssa Jones jumper gave Piedmont the advantage as the lead changed hands for the eighth time.

Though each team would rattle off scoring runs down the stretch, the score remained close until the Lady Lions clung to just a two point lead with a little over two minutes to play. Piedmont then displayed the veteran experience they had all season long scoring seven straight points and making several key defensive stops against the nation's top ranked offense to hold a 76-67 margin with just seconds remaining.

Although a Panther three-point bucket at the buzzer would make the final score 76-70 in favor of Piedmont, the Lady Lions survived and advanced to tomorrow's GSAC tournament championship game against the Scotties of Agnes Scott College. For PC, it is the second straight title game appearance under Head Coach Jamie Purdy who has a pair of GSAC titles in her six year tenure.

Posting her 12th double-double of the season was the junior forward Wheeler who scored 15 points to go with her 14 boards. The Gainesville native had a key block in the first half and a score to follow which sparked the Lady Lions on to a semifinal victory ending her day by fittingly collecting the game's final rebound.

While Wheeler led the way in both scoring and rebounding, close behind was fellow Wheeler in the guard Shanice who tallied 13 points hitting five of her eight tries from the charity stripe. Fellow junior Amber Satterfield shot 50% from the field to collect her ten points in the PC win.

Coming off the bench to make an impact yet again was Keiondria Thompson who scored 12 points on five of nine shooting on the day. Jones had a solid performance at the point doing what it took to win as the 5'5 guard collecting eight rebounds to go with her seven points.

The victory improves the Lady Lions to 19-8 on the season and moves the squad into the GSAC tournament championship game against fourth seeded Agnes Scott College. That game is set to tip-off at 2:00 (EST) in Roland Arena on the campus of Huntingdon College as fans can find coverage on at the official home of the GSAC on the web, www.GreatSouth.org.