JACKSONVILLE, FL--Benazura Serbecic and Erica Larsen combined for 37 points as the USC Aiken Lady Pacers (2-0) knocked off the Virginia State Trojanettes (0-2) 57-39 in women’s non-conference basketball action on Sunday afternoon in Jacksonville, FL. It was the first meeting between the two schools who are both in the NCAA South Atlantic Region.

“Virginia State is in a position that we were last year,” said USCA head coach Mike Brandt. “They have a new coach that came on board in mid-September. They have a good team; they just came out nervous and had an off-game yesterday [in an 87-46 loss to North Florida].”

Serbecic came off the USCA bench to connect on 9-of-15 from the field and 2-of-2 at the free throw line for a game-high 20 points. She added nine rebounds including six on the offensive glass in 20 minutes of action. Larsen may have sealed her selection to the Lady Osprey Tip-Off Classic All-Tournament team with 17 points and five rebounds. The All-Tournament team will be released later Sunday night.

Alonna Marable opened the scoring with a jumper just 29 seconds into the game to give VSU the 2-0 lead. USCA countered with a 7-0 run on a three-pointer by Larsen and four straight points in the paint from Lana Mandic. USCA dominated the paint all game with a 16-2 point advantage and a 52-39 rebounding edge.

Two free throws from Areyal Hall gave the Trojanettes another two-point spread at 13-11 before Serbecic tied it up with 13:59 to play in the first half. Four points from Larsen extended the USCA lead to eight at 23-15 with 9:08 to play as the Lady Pacers would take a 30-24 lead into the locker room at the break.

Sarah Kendrick and Mindy Allee hit back-to-back lay-ups to open the second half as USCA built a double-digit lead 34-24 with 18:00 remaining. Hall converted a put back bucket at 13:32 to cut the margin to 36-30, but that was as close as VSU would get. An 8-0 Lady Pacer run keyed by four points from Serbecic and a pair of buckets from Larsen and Kendrick pushed the bulge to 44-30 with 9:32 on the clock.

Haylee Reichert’s lay-up with 2:40 remaining gave USCA its largest lead of the game at 57-35.

Mandic and Kendrick each finished with six points while Allee added two points, three rebounds, and two assists. Reichert had two points and eight boards.

After shooting 50.9 percent from the field yesterday, USCA cooled off to 35.3 percent (24-of-68) today, but their defensive pressure did not. VSU shot 25.5 percent from the field (14-of-55) including 6-of-27 in the second half (22.2 percent). USCA also won the turnover battle 16-12.

Marable finished with a team-high 17 points and seven rebounds to lead the Trojanettes. Hall added eight points and 10 rebounds.

USC Aiken will play its third-straight game away from home to open the 2003-04 season when the Lady Pacers play at Division I foe Georgia Southern on Saturday, November 22 at 5:15 PM.

SCORING:
USC Aiken (57): Benazura Serbecic 20, Erica Larsen 17, Lana Mandic 6, Sarah Kendrick 6, Mindy Allee 2, Haylee Reichert 2, Kasey Mills 2, Beata Szabo 2

Virginia State (39): Alonna Marable 17, Areyal Hall 8, Erica Glasper 5, Felicia Gibbs 4, Jennifer Rhodan 2, Monique Mason 2, Courtney Latimore 1.

Boxscore

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