Misenheimer, NC – Erskine closed out their regular season tonight with an 87-76 road loss to Pfeiffer University in Conference Carolinas women’s basketball action at Merner Gym. The loss snaps a five-game win streak for the Fleet dropping them to 13-13 on the season and 11-9 in conference. Pfeiffer finishes their regular season on a six-game win streak to move to 14-12 overall and 13-7 in conference. With the win, Pfeiffer earns the #4 seed in the conference tournament to start this Tuesday night and will host #5 seed Queens University. Erskine receives the #6 seed and travels to Limestone College. Both games start at 7 p.m.
Erskine and Pfeiffer traded the lead 11 times in the first half that saw the Lady Fleet carry a 37-33 lead into the locker room at the half. A layup by senior Jean Marie Harris (Lancaster, SC, Indian Land High School) put Erskine up by eight, 17-9, with 11:33 to play in the first half until a 9-0 Pfeiffer run in less than three minutes put the Lady Falcons up 18-17. The Fleet closed out the half on a 6-2 run, highlighted by a basket as time expired by junior Porsha Morgan (Columbus, GA, LaGrange Academy).
Pfeiffer tied in first minutes of the second half at 43-43 on a pair of 3-point buckets by Celeste Caudill and Brittany Cox. Pfeiffer’s Shelley Reese made a basket with 15:59 on the clock to give the Falcons the lead. Pfeiffer continued to shoot well extending their lead to as many as thirteen points with eight minutes remaining in the game. Erskine trimmed the lead to six points on two penetrating drives by Morgan with 2:42 left in the game but Pfeiffer converted on all six foul shots down the stretch to seal the 87-76 victory.
Pfeiffer shot a sizzling 60% from the field, including an astonishing 77% in the second half. The Fleet shot well, hitting 32 of 59 for 54%. Pfeiffer also converted on 16 of 17 free throws (94%) whereas the Fleet made just 9 of 16 free throws (56%).
Porsha Morgan led all scorers with a game-high 28 points. Senior Jean Marie Harris added 18 points and junior Elizabeth Tatum (Glennville, GA, Pinewood Christian Academy)contributed 17 points along with a team-high 6 rebounds.
For Pfeiffer, Brittany Cox had a team-high 21 points while Kellie Rhoney had 14 points and 8 rebounds and Christina Harvey finished with 11 points and 9 rebounds.
Erskine plays Limestone on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. in the first round of the Conference Carolinas Postseason Tournament. Erskine swept the regular season series.
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