Box Score Toccoa Falls, GA - The Piedmont College women's basketball team got out to a fast start scoring 35 of the game's first 43 points in tonight's 50-point victory over local foe Toccoa Falls College in a road contest for PC.  The Lady Lions decided the game in the first half holding a 40-12 lead with just over four minutes to play until the halftime break en route to the 89-39 final decision, a top ten scoring mark for Piedmont in the NCAA era.

Piedmont suffocated the Toccoa Falls offense for the entirety of the night forcing the Eagles into 43 total turnovers in the 40 minutes of play while also keeping TFC silent from the field as the home team shot just 28.6% overall including a 1-of-9 mark from three point land (11.1%).  Meanwhile, Piedmont connected on better than 46% of its tries from the field shooting just over 32% from downtown for the night.

Tonight's 36 field goals made by PC is in the top five of such performances since the 2005 season while the 26 assists is a top six mark in the same time period.  Perhaps more impressively, the Lady Lions set a new program record for steals in a game by the team with 27 team takeaways against the Eagles as Piedmont capitalized with 48 points off turnovers to Toccoa's 13 points off takeaways.

Again, the Lady Lions demonstrated their depth as well tallying 54 points off the bench compared to just nine for the reserves from the Eagles, a near mirror story from the first match up between these two programs.  In a 93-45 victory on November 19th, the Piedmont bench outscored the then-visiting Eagles' substitutes 64-12.

PC went on a 15-2 run to start the action in tonight's road game capped off with a three-point play the old fashion way by Piedmont's Mary Kate Rushton with less than five minutes gone in the first half.  Back-to-back jumpers from Chandler Alverson (who did a little bit of everything for PC with her eight points, three steals, three assists, and five boards) made the Piedmont lead 21-6 with just over 10 minutes to go in the first.

Piedmont then held Toccoa without a field goal for the next five minutes while scoring 14 points of their own during that stretch to blow the game wide open leading 35-8 with just over five to go until halftime.  Despite the big lead, Toccoa outscored PC 9-6 the rest of the way in the first half to go into the locker room down 42-19. 

Trailing by 23 points, Toccoa watched Piedmont score eight straight points to open the second half and push their lead over 30 for the first time after a Chandler Alverson bucket with less than three minutes gone in the second.  Taking that 50-19 lead, Piedmont continued to score in bunches as Carly Sales scored back-to-back buckets after a Toccoa score to keep the Lady Lions out in front big.

Two straight three-pointers from Gabby Arencibia put Piedmont up by 38 at 60-22 with 13 minutes to go as the Eagles saw no end in sight to the offensive barrage by the visitors.  A jumper from senior Lauren Hamel made the lead 40 for the first time on the night with Piedmont going up 64-24 at the 11:30 mark. 

Holding Toccoa Falls to just six points over the next five minutes, Piedmont's Erin Clifford sank the last of her three tri-fectas on the night with 6:28 to go to push PC up by 52 cresting the 50-point margin for the first time in the game.  For Clifford, the three-pointer was her third in less than a three-minute time span as she was one of several freshmen to contribute in a big way on the evening. 

PC went on to cruise down the stretch as the girls from Demorest had done so much of the night with Piedmont coming away an 89-39 winner on the road.  The win is the fifth in the last six games for Head Coach Jamie Purdy as her Lady Lions who come away with their third victory by double-digits on the season.

The box score was led by freshmen on this night in Toccoa Falls as a trio of newcomers scored in double digits for Piedmont led by youngster Gabby Arencibia who tallied 14 points hitting on five of her nine tries from the field, eight of which came from downtown as she connected on 50% of tries from distance.  Arencibia also added a pair of helpers on the evening, a category in which freshman Brianna Barrett tied returner Taylor Swoszowski for the team-high four assists.

The remaining two freshmen scoring in double digits for PC included Kendria Buckner and Carly Sales as Buckner shot 40% from the field and added three rebounds, three assists, and two steals to her stat line for the night.  Sales shot 5-of-8 from the field while also adding two steals and four boards to go with a pretty no-look assist midway through the second half on a night when the visiting Lady Lions moved the ball well to keep the TFC zone shifting.

Scoring nine on the night was Le'Shaunda Jones who hit on four of her seven shots though the story on her night was her half dozen steals which tied her for the fourth most by an individual in a game since the 2005 season.  Another freshman also having a solid night was Erin Clifford who hit on three of her four tries from the field all coming from behind the three-point line to score her nine points with two of them coming back-to-back midway through the second half to push the Piedmont lead to 47. 

With the win, Piedmont moves to 5-2 and improves to a 2-1 mark in away games having dropped their last road contest against Berry College before winning tonight.  PC is also now 4-1 against teams from the state of Georgia playing their last three games against teams from the Peach State.

The Lady Lions now travel out of state for the first time for a rematch with Birmingham Southern College in their next game on the schedule coming this Saturday, December 14th.  Tip off is set for 2:00 pm at the home of the Panthers in Birmingham, Alabama with live stats provided courtesy of the BSC Office of Sports Information.  Piedmont defeated the Panthers 63-59 on earlier this season in a home contest for PC on November 23rd.