Saturday, February 3, 2007

NORTH GEORGIA DROPS ROAD GAME AT GCSU
Late second-half charge falls short for North Georgia

Milledgeville, GA – The North Georgia College & State University Lady Saints second half surge fell short, falling to Georgia College & State University 81-76 on the road in Peach Belt Conference action Saturday afternoon.

The Lady Saints found themselves down by as many as 13 points, but were able to close the gap to as close as three points before Georgia College & State University was able to seal the victory with free throws down the stretch.

Trailing 68-57 with 4:49 remaining, the Lady Saints started their run to close the gap. Junior Kourtney Singleton started the scoring with a lay-up, trimming the lead to 68-59 with 4:31 to go. Sophomore point guard Lindsey Kitchens trimmed the lead even further, cutting it to 68-61 with 3:51 to go with another lay-up.

Lindsey Smith hit two free throws for the Lady Bobcats on their next trip down the floor, extending the lead to 70-61 with 3:26 remaining. On the Lady Saints next possession, Singleton took a pass from Syretha Marble and hit another lay-up to trim the lead to 70-63 with 3:03 remaining.

North Georgia head coach Buffie Burson called a timeout after the lay-up, and the Lady Saints responded with four consecutive points. Marble hit a lay-up with 2:29 to go, trimming the lead to 70-65. Following a steal by Kitchens, the Lady Saints' freshman center Porsha White connected on a fastbreak lay-up to trim the lead to 70-67 with 2:03 remaining in the contest.

From there, the two teams traded baskets for much of the contest.

Marquita Driskell hit a lay-up with 1:57 remaining to give GCSU a five-point lead at 72-67. Singleton was fouled on the Lady Saints' next possession and hit both free throws to trim the lead back to 72-69 with 1:42 remaining. Driskell hit another lay-up on GCSU's next possession to extend the lead back to five at 74-69 with 1:27 remaining.

Singleton added another lay-up for North Georgia, trimming the lead to 74-71 with 1:09 to go, followed by a Driskell short jumper to push the lead to 76-71 with 40 seconds remaining. From that point, Georgia College & State University connected on 5-of-6 free throws to seal the victory for the Lady Bobcats.

GCSU shot 45.3 (29-for-64) percent from the floor and 30.4 (7-for-23) percent from behind the arc. They also shot 69.6 (16-for-23) percent from the free throw line.

Meanwhile, North Georgia shot 43.5 (27-for-62) percent from the floor and 25 (3-for-12) percent from behind the arc. They also shot 65.5 (19-for-29) percent from the free throw line.

Driskell led all scorers with 24 points on 9-of-18 shooting from the floor. Smith added 12 and Ashley Williams 10 for Georgia College & State University (16-5, 7-3 PBC).

Singleton and White paced North Georgia with 17 points. Marble added 15 points for the Lady Saints.

North Georgia (9-12, 4-7 PBC) returns to action Wednesday night against USC Aiken at Memorial Hall. Tip-off is set for 5:30 pm.

-NGCSU-

Box Score

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