STATESBORO, GA--USC Aiken (2-1) twice rallied from a 15-point deficit and had a shot at the buzzer to force overtime, but Kasey Mills’ three-pointer was off the mark as Georgia Southern (1-0) survived the upset bid to win 61-58 in women’s basketball action. Mills finished with a career-high 21 points for the Lady Pacers. GSU is 2-0 all-time against the Lady Pacers at Hanner Fieldhouse in Statesboro, Ga.

“We came in here wanting to win, and came very close to accomplishing that,” said USCA head coach Mike Brandt. “This is a good team that beat us tonight and I feel they are as good as any team we’ll face this year and we just lost by three at their place.”

Georgia Southern, picked to finish fourth in the 11-team Division I Southern Conference, returned nine letterwinners and three starters off last year’s team that went 20-10 overall and placed third in the SoCon with a 12-6 mark. USCA last been a Division I team on December 2, 1994 in a 74-73 win over Elon College in Aiken.

USCA opened slow going 2-of-15 from the field in the first 8:32. After the nerves settled, the Lady Pacers started to warm up finishing the half 6-of-17.

Following an early 4-2 USCA lead, a 13-0 run by the Eagles capped by Kellie Tiller’s two-point basket make it 15-4 with 10:51 left until halftime. GSU extended the lead to 15 with 9:21 on the clock on a fast break lay-up from Lee DuBose.

Both Tiller and DuBose finished with career-highs. Tiller was 6-of-10 from the field including 3-of-6 from deep for 15 points in 18 minutes off the bench. Tiller’s previous career-high was 12 on November 26, 2002 versus Charleston Southern. DuBose was 4-of-6 from beyond the three-point arc for a team-high 18 points, breaking her previous high of 14 set at Furman on January 11.

A three-point by Mills followed by a Mills’ transition lay-up off an Eagle turnover sparked a 15-2 run. Sarah Kendrick sank two free throws with 1:07 remaining to knot the game up at 24-24.

Holding for the final shot of the half, Tiller grabbed a long offensive rebound and banked in a three-pointer from the right wing as time expired to give GSU the 27-24 half time lead. That was the only field goal over the final 9:28 for the Eagles.

In a turnover-filled game, the two teams combined for 61, 31 for USCA and 30 for Georgia Southern. The battle of the boards was even at 40-40. The Lady Pacers shot 36.2 percent (21-of-58) while the Eagles were 21-of-56 for 37.5 percent. GSU made one more three-pointer than USCA and outscored the Lady Pacers 12-10 at the charity stripe.

GSU opened on fire in the second half connecting on their first three shots from the field including a pair of triples by DuBose to quickly build a 35-24 lead just 58 seconds into the second stanza.

Two free throws by DuBose at the 16:00 mark pushed the advantage to 41-26, equaling the Eagles largest lead of the game.

But just when it seemed GSU was ready to pull away, the Lady Pacers roared back. A 19-2 run starting with a Mills three-pointer at 15:41 and ending with a jumper in the paint from Benazura Serbecic at 10:36 gave USCA its first lead since 4-2 at 45-43.

Tied 47-47, DuBose hit back-to-back treys to give GSU a 53-47 lead.

Trailing by five with 32 ticks remaining, Mills drained her third three of the night to cut the margin to two points. Following a foul, one of two free throws by DuBose made it a three point margin.

With 7.9 seconds to play, USCA inbounded the ball, traveled the length of the floor, but Mills’ contested three-pointer was off the mark.

Erica Larsen posted her third-straight double figure scoring night with 15 points on 5-of-12 shooting including 3-of-8 from deep. Katie Mitchell added eight points off the bench. Serbecic, also coming off the Lady Pacer bench, chipped in six points and a game-high 11 rebounds.

USC Aiken will host the Honda Cars of Aiken Classic on Friday and Saturday, November 28-29 at “The Courthouse”. On Friday, the Lady Pacers host Saint Pauls College at 7:30 PM in their 2003-04 home opener.

SCORING:
USC Aiken (58): Kasey Mills 21, Erica Larsen 15, Katie Mitchell 8, Benazura Serbecic 6, Haylee Reichert 4, Mindy Allee 2, Sarah Kendrick 2

Georgia Southern (61): Lee DuBose 18, Kellie Tiller 15, Jessica Everett 8, Adrienne Early 5, Nicole Newton 5, Kristy McCorkle 4, Dana Benemon 4, Shawnica Hill 2.

Boxscore

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