LaGrange, GA - The Piedmont College women's basketball team led by nearly 20 at halftime of today's 83-73 win over Berry College in the USA South / SAA Classic hosted by LaGrange College.  The Lady Lions (4-0, 1-0 USA South) earned the ten point win despite a late push from the Vikings who fall to now 4-2 on the season. 

Berry had defeated LaGrange the day before in the tournament 78-69 as Sunday was a matchup of two teams unbeaten at the Classic.  Piedmont had handed Oglethorpe its worst defeat of the season yesterday with a 107-76 decision. 

The Lady Lions led at halftime after riding the hot shooting of MARY KATE RUSHTON who sparked up in yesterday's win over Oglethorpe with 25 points in the 31-point victory over the Stormy Petrels.  Today, it was Rushton again who started out hot hitting on five of her first seven shots from the field including three-of-five from downtown to help Piedmont in the ten point win.

Rushton's 14 first half points were a team-high and game-high as she was the only player in double figures over the first 20 minutes.  Piedmont connected on nearly 60% of its shots from the field in the opening period while holding the Vikings to just over 31%.  

From distance, Piedmont hit on 50% of its tries from beyond the three-point arc in the first half while Berry connected on only three of its first 13 three-point tries. 

For the game, Rushton ended up with 26 total points to continue her current two game tear as she poured in 25 yesterday.  After BRIANNA BARRETT's 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting, TAYLOR SWOSZOWSKI and LE'SHAUNDA JONES were next up on the scoring list with 13 and 14 points respectively.

For Piedmont, the win avenges an 88-76 loss to the Vikings last season which was the Lady Lions' second loss in the first six games of the season.  With the win this season, Piedmont stays perfect in 2014-15 with a 4-0 record moving to 3-0 against the Southern Athletic Association having defeated Birmingham Southern in the season opener.  

The Lady Lions will get back on the court one week from today hitting the road to take on a former conference foe, Salem College in Winston-Salem, NC.  The December 7 contest is set for a 2:00 pm tip off.  Live audio coverage will be provided by TriadSportsCoverage.com.

For more information on the Piedmont women's basketball program, follow Piedmont on Twitter (@PiedmontLions), like the Lady Lions on Facebook (facebook.com/PiedmontCollegeLions or facebook.com/pages/Piedmont-College-Womens-Basketball), or sign up for the Lions' Roar text-messaging score & news alerts through the "All-Access" drop down menu on the main page at PiedmontLions.com.