Box Score By Jim O'Hara

ROME, Ga. – The Shorter Lady Hawks ended a four-game losing streak and got their conference schedule off on the right foot Saturday afternoon, turning in their best shooting outing of the season when they handed West Georgia a 77-52 defeat at the Winthrop-King Centre in the first Gulf South Conference tilt of the season for both programs.

Shorter, now 2-4 overall, ended the game hitting a rock-solid 55 percent of its shots from the floor, the bulk of that sharpshooting coming from the outside where the Lady Hawks canned 13 (52 percent) of their three-pointers.

Balance was the offensive order of the day as five Lady Hawks ended the afternoon in double figures.
Ieshia Alexander led Shorter with a game-high 16 points, Kristin Nash finished with 14, Tamarr Williams had 12 thanks to four treys, and Karisma Boykin and Madison Rice each added 10.

The Lady Hawks came out of the gate quickly showing they brought their shooting touch as Shorter grabbed a 37-25 halftime lead, hitting 58 percent of their shots from the floor including a 7-for-14 mark from beyond the three-point arc.

Williams gave Shorter its first 10-point lead with eight minutes left in the opening half and a basket in the lane by Kristin Nash at the buzzer provided the Lady Hawks with their biggest advantage of the first 20 minutes when the team headed to the locker rooms at the break.

Shorter continued to apply the outside pressure when the teams returned for the second half, building as much as a 17-point edge.

After the Wolves made a run to cut the gap to eight points the Lady Hawks reeled off a 14-0 run to assume 21-point lead, 59-37, when Williams nailed a three-pointer with 10 minutes left to play.

Shaundrika Mann gave Shorter a 24-point lead, 64-20, when she found an opening inside to score with 7:28 remaining in the game as the Lady Hawks never looked back, eventually taking their biggest lead of the game with 34 seconds to play, 77-51, when Rice drove the lane for a layup.

Despite a noticeable height disadvantage, the Lady Hawks won the battle under the glass out-rebounding the Wolves 35-32 with Boykin leads Shorter with seven.

West Georgia (2-5, 0-1) was paced by Marion Lemonnier's 15 points, Seandre Lee had 12 and Ashley Prather added 11.

The Lady Hawks hit the road for their final non-conference game of the season on Monday when they visit Clark-Atlanta, then are back at home for a pair of GSC tests before the Christmas break, hosting Union next Wednesday and North Alabama next Friday. Both games start at 6 p.m.