Box Score Demorest, GA - The Piedmont College women's basketball team led for almost 27 minutes of today's matchup against the nation's 10th ranked team in the Emory Eagles, but saw the in-state rival storm back late to steal a 73-70 victory in Cave Arena on New Year's Eve. Holding a ten-point lead at halftime, the home team held Emory to 25% shooting from the field in the first half, but the Eagles responded with a 46% showing in the second half to overtake the deficit and stay undefeated at 10-0 for the year.

Emory opened up the scoring on their first field goal attempt of the game with a Shellie Kaniut 3-pointer less than 20 seconds in showing right away they had not let the rust collect over the holiday break.  However, a pair of Elise Reyes free throws cut the margin to one setting up a chance for PC to take the lead which they did after a defensive stop and a Brianna Barrett try from three-point land which put Piedmont up 5-3. 

Barrett's tri-fecta was one of five by the Lady Lions in the first half as they shot over 45% from downtown in the first 20 minutes.  Emory was able to only muster a 20% mark from three-point land in the first half, a column which only declined for the Eagles in the second half as they were 1-for-6 in the final 20 minutes.

Emory answered the Barrett three with one of their own to take hold of the lead for the next 3 minutes of the game until PC drew even with the visitors at 11-11 with just 14 minutes to go until halftime.  Emory went back in front until Symone Ball's jumper with 11:06 remaining gave Piedmont their first lead since the 17:27 mark, an advantage that Gabby Arencibia extended when she knocked down a three to put PC up 18-14 moments later. 

After a pair of Eagle free throws cut the margin down to two, a jumper from Elise Reyes in the paint put Piedmont back up four as Reyes hit on four of her six field goal tries in the first half to lead all Piedmont shooters.  Less than a minute later, Lady Lion Mary Kate Rushton gave the home team its largest lead to that point when she connected on a three with 8:25 to go in the half, putting Piedmont up 23-16. 

PC continued to stay in front leading for the final 11 minutes of the opening period pushing their advantage to double digits on a three-pointer from Erin Clifford with just over two to play in the half.  Carly Sales' layup with less than a minute to go gave Piedmont their largest lead of the first half at 38-26 though a Gabi Whitmer two-point response made the score 38-28 Piedmont at the break.

Though Emory had trailed at the half only twice up this point on the season, the Eagles had managed to come back and outscore their opponent in the second half in both those contests coming back from a five-point deficit against Salem in their season opener before winning by nine.  The Eagles did it again against Maryville eight days later coming back from down seven at the half to win by just a point, a fact that seemed to sink the Lady Lion effort to stay in front against the top ten team who seemed to have adjusted well at the half when not getting off to a good start so far this season.

Despite the halftime talk, Emory turned the ball over and missed on their second shot of the second half to give Piedmont the chance to extend the lead scoring five straight points as PC opened up their largest lead of the game at 15 points, 43-28.  The Eagles brought the lead back down to ten points moments later only to see a quick five-point stretch again with a Symone Ball jumper and a Mary Kate Rushton three as Piedmont again went up 15 at 50-35

However, Emory then went on a 9-0 run over the next four minutes to close the gap down to six points before Gabby Arencibia connected again from three-point land to stop the run after Piedmont had missed its last eight shots from the field in that span.  That connection though only slowed the storming Eagles who again went on a 9-0 run to force the second tie of the game at 53-53 with 7:34 to play setting up a finish fitting of the New Year's Eve excitement building in the Cave.

Four ties and three lead changes occurred over the next four-plus minutes as the Eagles now took a 67-66 lead with 3:01 to play on back-to-back jumpers from Selena Castillo.  The two then traded free throws on the next two possessions as Piedmont trailed 69-68 with now 2:23 to go until a steal and a fast-break layup by Le'Shaunda Jones gave Piedmont the lead at 70-69 with 1:27 remaining.

With #10 Emory down by one coming out of a timeout, the Eagles slipped post player Gabi Whitmer off a screen and picked up a layup to go up 71-70 with 45 seconds to go.  Whitmer was the key for Emory in their second half rally scoring 18 of her career-high 27 in the final 20 minutes of the game as she got to the line for 15 free throws, 11 of which came in the second half.

Down by a point with under a minute remaining now, Piedmont had two chances to either tie or take the lead down the stretch but turned the ball over twice as Emory survived with a 73-70 victory late hitting on a pair of free throws in the final seconds to set the final score.  Both teams scored 21 points off turnovers, an advantage that Emory held coming in having outscored their opponents 247-86 in that category.  However, the afternoon was an even game in nearly every category with Emory holding just a two-point advantage in both points in the paint (28-26) and bench points (37-35), categories that Piedmont led in at the half. 

Piedmont's Elise Reyes scored 18 points to lead all Lady Lions in scoring as she connected on more than half of her tries from the field.  Taylor Swoszowski also tallied double figures in scoring with 11 points, four of which came from the charity stripe. 

Symone Ball led the Lady Lions in rebounding with seven with senior Lauren Hamel just behind with her half dozen boards.  Ball also had a pair of steals while a trio of Lady Lions had three assists each to top that column including Swoszowski, Brianna Barrett, and Gabby Arencibia who had eight points on 67% shooting. 

With the loss, Piedmont falls to 6-3 overall picking up a defeat for the first time in 30 days.  Next up for the girls from Demorest is a road challenge this Friday, January 3rd as the Lady Lions travel to Staunton, Virginia for their USA South opener against Mary Baldwin College.  Tip off in the conference contest is set for 2:00 pm.