GREENVILLE, S.C. - Presbyterian College women's basketball cut a 24 point second half deficit to just 11 points with a minute left in the game but ultimately fell 73-60 to the Paladins at Timmons Arena.  Mariah Pietrowski (Elizabethton, Tenn.) had 15 points and 11 rebounds to lead PC while Furman was paced by Kaitlin Murphy's 26 points.

"The start really hurt us tonight," said head coach Ronny Fisher.  "We dug a big hole for ourselves but I'm proud that we fought back to get ourselves into the game.  We could never really stop them tonight but we continued to play hard throughout the game.  We'll learn from this loss and move forward."

PC fell to 2-3 on the year while Furman moved to 2-2 in 2010-11.

Pietrowski's second double-double came over a year after she tallied her first against Winston-Salem State with 23 points and 11 boards.  The defending Big South Freshman of the year posted the big numbers even while saddled with three fouls to close the first half and a fourth in the second period.

Shonda Burnside (Gray Court, S.C.) also dumped in 14 points as the Blue Hose committed a season-low 14 turnovers in the loss.  Last season, the Blue Hose averaged 24.1 turnovers per game.

The Blue Hose struggled out of the gate going the first 2:42 without and point as Furman took a 10-3 lead.  By the 7:26 mark, PC would recover and trail by a 24-23 margin on a deuce from Burnside.  Kristen Stevens (Pickerington, Ohio) had the hot hand from downtown in the opening minutes with pair of three-pointers for six points in the first period.  She would close the afternoon with nine points.

Furman ran the advantage out to 12 points and took a 43-30 lead into the locker rooms at halftime.  Freshman Karlee Taylor (Asheville, N.C.) scored all of her seven points in the first half to lead the Blue Hose at the break. 

PC cut the lead to just 10 points but a 15-1 run by the Paladins made the score 60-36 with 13:24 left in the game.  The Blue Hose chipped away at the lead and cut the lead to just 11 points with a minute left in the game.  It would be as close as PC would get with Furman converting free throws down the stretch.

The game saw a pair of Blue Hose get their maiden points for the season as both Megan Schaaf (Ellicott City, Md.) and Olivia Towers-Solis (Dacula, Ga.) scored two points. 

PC posted its lowest turnover total of the season with 14 in the game.  From the field, PC shot just .344 (22-for-64) and .222 (4-of-18) from downtown.

Furman shot lights-out in the first half going 15-for-25 (.600) from the field and 3-of-7 (.429) from beyond the arc.  Overall, the Paladins shot .471 (25-for-51) from the field and .385 (5-for-13) from downtown.  The Paladins also won the free throw battle with a .741 percent mark to PC's .667 average.

With 60 points, the Blue Hose posted their highest total in Greenville, since December 7, 1994 when PC scored 63 in a loss to Furman.

PC cleaned the boards once again by taking a 43-35 lead in total rebounds.  PC had 20 boards on the offensive side of the ball to post 11 second-chance points. 

Fisher, a 1990 Furman graduate, fell to 0-1 all-time as a head coach against his alma mater. 

The Blue Hose return home to face USC Upstate on Thursday night at 7 p.m. inside the Templeton Center.

Fans can keep up with Blue Hose women's basketball and the rest of PC's 16 intercollegiate sports teams at www.Twitter.com/BlueHoseSports.  There, fans will find exclusive updates you can't find anywhere else.  If video is your quest, check out the BlueTube on www.GoBlueHose.com or www.youtube.com/BlueHoseAthletics.