Box Score By Jim O'Hara
 
ROME, Ga. – Senior Karisma Boykin connected for a season-high 27 points but a cool night at the free throw line and turnovers proved to be too much as the Shorter Lady Hawks dropped an 80-72 Gulf South Conference decision to Alabama-Huntsville Thursday night at the Winthrop-King Centre.

The loss, Shorter's third straight, gives the Lady Hawks a 4-7 overall record and puts them 2-4 in the GSC heading into Saturday's road conference game at West Alabama.

With the win Alabama-Huntsville, led by Jordan Smith's game-high 28 points, improves to 8-4 overall and snaps a three-game GSC losing skid that now gives the Lady Chargers a 3-3 conference slate.

The Lady Hawks appeared in sync from the outset of the game against UAH, which entered the game averaging 93.8 points a game, as Shorter broke out to what was their biggest lead of the game, 28-16, when Maggie Peeples hit a three-pointer midway through the opening half.

The Lady Chargers, however, reeled Shorter in and cut the difference to one point at the intermission when Shannon Steinert nailed a three-point shot in the final minutes.

Shorter managed to keep UAH at bay during the opening minutes of the second half, but with 12:09 left to play UAH's Halle Jernigan gave her team its first lead since the opening minutes. The two teams swapped the lead over the next six minutes, with Ieshia Alexander's free throw with 6:14 to go giving Shorter what wound up being their final lead of the night, 69-66.

That's when the Lady Chargers took control as they went on a 12-0 run that was capped by a pair of foul shots by Jarnigan that gave UAH its biggest spread of the game, 78-69, with 4:16 to go and put the game away.

While Boykin paced the Lady Hawks, Alexander added support scoring 12 points while Peeples came off the bench to add 10 points. Shorter, however, was hampered by 20 turnovers in the outing and hit just 17 of 28 shots from the foul line.

Backing up the outing by Smith, who leads the conference in scoring, was Steinert and Jasmine Hammon, who added 17 and points, respectively, while Jaunice Newton pulled down 10 rebounds.

After their trip to West Alabama, the Lady Hawks return home next week for two more GSC challenges hosting West Florida on Thursday, Jan. 16 and Valdosta State on Saturday, Jan. 18.