CLINTON, S.C. – The Presbyterian College women's basketball team used a big first half and strong defensive effort to earn a Senior Night victory over the visiting Charleston Southern Buccaneers on Thursday night, 66-55.
PC ends the regular season at 11-18 overall and 9-11 in the Big South. The Blue Hose will learn their opponent for next week's VisitMyrtleBeach.com Big South Conference Women's Basketball Championship with the conclusion of Saturday's League games. Charleston Southern falls to 8-20 on the year, 4-15 in the Big South and will play Gardner-Webb on Saturday at 3 p.m.
The team honored its three seniors Sherece Smith (Clemson, S.C.), Karlee Taylor (Asheville, N.C.) and Megan Schaaf (Ellicott City, Md.) prior to the game and the three helped PC to victory. Taylor led all players with 20 points, while Smith chipped in eight points and five rebounds and Schaaf tied for the team lead in steals, with two.
PC used an early 8-0 run to make it 18-12 to the 11:50 mark of the first half, part of an 18-6 run go up 30-18 going into the final media timeout of the first half. The Buccaneers trailed 35-23 at halftime and could never recover as the Blue Hose stayed ahead for the entire second half.
The Blue Hose also shot 54.3 percent (25-for-46) and tallied 17 assists to Charleston Southern's eight. PC's doubled the Buccaneers' output in the paint as well, 36 to 18.
The Buccaneers led 12-10 after the first six minutes, but PC ripped off eight straight points thanks to a Keyonna Allen (Forest Park, Ga.) layup, Smith bucket and points from Noelle Carter (Neptune, N.J.) and Rebecca Walker (Snellville, Ga.). Allen turned in a huge performance on Thursday night, scoring 18 points and leading all players with eight rebounds.
The 8-0 stretch turned into an 18-6 run as PC delivered a balanced attack throughout the first half. The Blue Hose shot 65.2 percent (15-for-23) in the opening period and eight Blue Hose scored at least two points, including a trio of players with six apiece and Allen with seven.
A Smith layup with 13 seconds before halftime put PC ahead, 35-23, taking the Blue Hose into the locker room by the same score.
Kaycie Reffner (Altoona, Pa.) matched a career-high with six assists on the night, including four in the first half.
The deficit proved too much for Charleston Southern to recover from. Two points from Aianna Kelly (Newport News, Va.) and another Smith layup two minutes after halftime gave PC its largest lead of the night, 39-23.
Charleston Southern then scored 10 unanswered points to crawl back within six, but Allen posted four straight of her own to restore the double-digit lead—just before a pair of three-pointers cut PC's lead to four midway through the period.
Taylor knocked down one of her five three-pointers to make it a seven-point game. Two more Taylor treys bumped the lead back up to 12, and despite narrowing the gap to six, the Buccaneers would run into more trouble down the stretch from Taylor and Allen as PC went on to win, 66-55.
PC's senior class played its last home game to total a combined 280 games, 6,510 minutes, 770 rebounds and 1,812 points during their four years.
PC also honored senior basketball cheerleaders Kaytie Donald, Reona Broadwater and Hillary Stamps.
