ROME, Ga. – The Shorter Lady Hawks tipped off the new season on a positive note, turning in a solid performance at both ends of the court to hand Clark-Atlanta an 81-61 defeat Wednesday night in the 19th annual Breast Cancer Awareness Classic at the Winthrop-King Centre.

"It was a good night," Shorter head coach Vic Mitchell said about the victory. "It was a really good start for us. It was good to get the win, good to play well and good to get everyone in the game.

"Now we have to build on that," he said. "We've got two more tests this weekend, so tomorrow we'll go back to work to get ready."

The Lady Hawks remain at home Friday hosting Hiwassee in a non-conference game, then travels to Birmingham, Ala., on Saturday to square off against Division I Samford in an exhibition clash.

Against Clark's Panthers, now 1-2 overall, the Lady Hawks wasted little time establishing control of the game, breaking out to a 21-10 first quarter lead – this year women's teams are playing four 10-minute periods – and eventually cruised to a commanding 41-24 halftime lead thanks to some pinpoint accuracy from the floor as Shorter headed into the break hitting more than 60 percent of their shots from the floor.

The Lady Hawks opened the second half establishing a 24-point advantage, 58-34, when Taylor Adams scored inside and after assuming a 66-39 lead heading into the final period, took their biggest lead of the night when Grace Rogers scored on a layup to give her team a 68-39 edge.

Clark managed to cut Shorter's lead to 17, 77-60, when Gia Banks connected on a three-pointer, but that was as close as the visitors would get.

"Except for that three minute stretch in the fourth quarter," Mitchell said, "we played pretty solid."

Adams ended the night making an impressive debut in her first game with Shorter, leading the Lady Hawks with a team-high 20 points thanks to a 9-for-14 shooting performance, while senior Shakierya McClendon also made the most of her first game as a Lady Hawks finishing with 14 points, 12 of those coming in the first half, and leading the team with five rebounds.

Senior Maggie Peeples and freshman Kayla Tillie added nine points apiece as the Lady Hawks closed out the win hitting 57 percent of their shots, including a 7-for-14 outing from the three-point arc.

Mykala Jones paced Clark with 20 points.

The Lady Hawks squares off against Clark on Nov. 24 in Atlanta to close out their early non-conference tests before getting into what will be a grueling 22-game Gulf South Conference schedule.

Shorter's first GSC test comes on Dec. 3 when the Lady Hawks travel to Jackson, Tenn., to play Union, the defending conference champions and ranked No. 13 in the Division II preseason poll. The team remains in Tennessee to play Christian Brothers on Dec. 5 in Memphis, before returning to Rome for its first GSC home game against West Florida on Dec. 10.