Box Score Demorest, GA - The Piedmont College women's basketball team trailed at halftime and could not make up the difference in the second half as visiting Huntingdon College came away with an 84-75 victory over the home Lady Lions.  Piedmont picked up 17 points for the second straight game from youngster Mary Kate Rushton, but a ten point halftime deficit was too much for the Lady Lions to overcome as they scored less than 30 points in the first half for just the fifth time in 20 games this season.

Things looked good early for the Lady Lions who started off on a 10-0 run courtesy of eight straight points from Rushton who knocked down a pair of three's in the first 1:33 of the game.  However, PC would be held scoreless in the next five minutes of play as the Lady Hawks raged back with 11 straight of their own to cut the lead down to just one with Piedmont up 12-11 with just under 14 to go in the half.

Huntingdon's Raven Prater handed the visitors their first lead of the game hitting a three at the 12:44 mark to put her team up 16-15, one of five threes on the day for Prater who had 19 total points, 11 of which came in the first half.  The two teams would tie the game up three times in the following seven minutes approaching the break until Huntingdon took control just before the break scoring the final five points of the half to take a 39-29 lead into the locker room.

In the second half, the visitors built a 19-point lead up over the opening five minutes scoring 14 points over the first 4:41 of the second half with nine of those coming from behind the three-point line. That would be the largest lead of the game though for the Lady Hawks as the Lady Lions started to close the margin down cutting it back down to single digits with a layup from Charlotte Lewallen at the 9:08 mark making the score 62-51 HC just past the midway point.

A Brianna Barrett free throw with just under 4:30 to play cut the margin to three points as the Lady Lions made it a single possession game for the first time since the closing minutes of the first half.  Huntingdon was able to respond staying in front but Piedmont continued to rally after dropping behind by six as a Rushton three-pointer sliced the deficit in half with less than three minutes to play as Huntingdon led 72-69. 

However, a jumper from Pat Pickens of HC, who scored a game-high 35 points without hitting a single three-pointer, quieted the PC storm as the Lady Lions could not make it a one-possession game again down the stretch.  In the final 41 seconds up by six, Huntingdon would hit all six of their free throws to ice an 84-75 decision on the road despite a late jumper from Chandler Alverson which kept the final margin in single digits.

Leading the team with her 17 points was sophomore Mary Kate Rushton who scored the game's first eight points during PC's 10-0 run to start the action.  Rushton also had 17 in Wednesday's win over LaGrange College as she went six of 13 overall earlier today in the Cave hitting on four of seven tries from downtown including her first two of the game.

Not far behind with her 16 points was senior Lauren Hamel who scored one shy of her season high in a November 30th win over Oglethorpe earlier this season.  Hamel also shot six of thirteen like Rushton but was also a perfect 4-of-4 at the charity strip posting a game-high four assists to lead all players in that column. 

In double figures for the second time in the last four games after doing so just once in the previous 16 games which started her Lady Lion career for the freshman this season was local product Brianna Barrett.  Barrett had 13 points on three of four shooting doing most of her damage at the free throw line late in the second half as she was five of nine from the stripe in the game.

The loss drops Piedmont to 7-4 in conference play pitting them in a second place tie with fellow South Division member Huntingdon College who holds the edge with a win in hand. The Lady Hawks will play host to PC in the second of the two game season series on February 16th, likely a key South Division matchup for the USA South foes.

Piedmont will return to the court next when the Lady Lions travel up the mountain to face USA South member Covenant College on Monday, February 10th with tip off in Lookout Mountain, Georgia set for 5:30 pm.  The game is a make-up contest for one which was originally scheduled during the week that Georgia was blasted with winter weather.