Belmont Abbey Women's Basketball Falls at North Greenville in Final Minute, 61-57

North Greenville scored the final five points of the game to erase a one point Abbey lead with 2:49 left as its women's basketball team edged Belmont Abbey 61-57 this evening at Hayes Gymnasium. North Greenville moves to 1-1, while the Abbey drops to 0-2.

The Abbey led 36-33 at the half and led by as many as 12 points with 11:05 to play, but a 12-3 North Greenville run deadlocked the contest at 22 with 7:27 showing. The Abbey outscored North Greenville 14-11 in the final seven minutes to hold a three-point lead at the half.

Belmont Abbey maintained its lead through the first two and a half minutes before North Greenville cut down and then grabbed the lead, which it held for the next two minutes. A short jumper by Shayla Jackson with 15:45 left gave the Abbey a one point lead, and she would it another to tie the game at 45 after North Greenville reclaimd the lead.

Jackson's jumper started a mini 4-3 Crusader jaunt that climbed the advantage to as high as four points. North Greenville quickly regained the lead, but a free throw from Asha Hardaway knotted the game at 50 with 8:07 remaining.

From there, the teams traded leads with neither team claiming a lead any higher than three points. Trailing by one with 3:15 left, a three-pointer by Melisa Foures put the Abbey on top 57-55, but the Crusaders would not score again.

A traditional three-point play by North Greenville's Karly Stache with 2:16 showing gave it a lead it would never lose. Stache was fouled in the act of shooting and sank the ensuing free throw to push North Greenville atop 59-57.

Both teams had chances to add more points off of turnovers, but neither team scored. After an Abbey foul with four seconds left, Stache salted the game away with two free throws to provide the winning margin.

Stache finished with 16 points in 35 minutes, including the final three points in the contest. Krisceda Cotton led all scorers with 18 points. Anjelica Wilcox added ten points. North Greenville shot 39.7 percent (23-58) from the floor and won the rebounding battle 39-33, including 17 offensive rebounds.

Belmont Abbey shot 44.2 percent (23-52) from the field as Amanda McDonald led the way with 13 points. Kelsey Long added 11 and Jackson added nine points and three assists. Hardaway led the way with eight rebounds.