Box Score Due West, S.C. – With just five games remaining, the Erskine Flying Fleet (13-10, 11-6) took another step toward hosting in the first round of the conference tournament with a 71 to 52 win over visiting conference foe Lees-McRae College (5-18, 4-13) last night at Belk Arena.
 
Erskine currently sits in a three-way tie for third place in the conference standings with Belmont Abbey and Emmanuel, just a game behind King University.  Erskine will have shot at moving up in the standings next Wednesday when they travel to Bristol, Tennessee, to play King.
 
The Fleet, who never trailed in the game, quickly built a double-digit lead to start the game.  Sophomore Kristin Giles (Union, SC, Union County High School) scored the game's first points off a runner in the lane and teammate Ashley Espinosa hit her two 3-pointers of the game to give the Fleet a 12 to 2 lead.
 
By halftime, Erskine had doubled Lees-McRae score at 32 to 16.  Erskine limited Lees-McRae to 5 of 23 (21.7%) shooting from the field while Erskine went a solid 11 of 29 (37.9%) from the floor.
 
In the second half, Erskine extended their lead to as many as 25 points before settling the 19 point win at 71 to 52.
 
Espinosa led all-scorers with 17 points.  Giles contributed 12 points along with 3 steals while senior Tara Potter (Charlotte, NC, Bandys High School) added 12 points and a team-high 7 boards.  Senior guard Haleigh Spaulding (Ocala, FL, Vanguard High School) handed out a game-high 7 assists.
 
For the Bobcats, Niroska Perez and Kabrina Truesdale scored 12 and 10 points respectively.  Truesdale also shared game-high rebound honors with 8.