Pickens’ 35 points pushes Lady Hawks past Piedmont

DEMOREST, Ga. – The Huntingdon women's basketball team picked up a key conference win with an 84-75 victory over Piedmont on Saturday.

With five conference games remaining, the Lady Hawks (15-5) moved into a tie with Piedmont (13-7) for second place in the South Division of the USA South Athletic Conference.

Huntingdon and Piedmont are both 7-4 in the conference. Maryville (18-3, 11-1 USA South) leads the South Division. The top three teams from the South Division will advance to the conference tournament.

Junior Pat Pickens turned in another career-best scoring performance to lead Huntingdon. Pickens, who set the Lady Hawks' NCAA-era single-game scoring record with 33 points earlier this season, broke her record with 35 points on Saturday. Pickens also had 12 rebounds and four steals.

Senior Raven Prater hit five 3-pointers and added 19 points. Prater, the Lady Hawks' career-leader in made 3-pointers, has hit at least five 3-pointers in a game five times this season.

Tan Munford and Arbanee Dean each had 11 rebounds for Huntingdon.

Huntingdon got off to a slow start, falling behind 10-0. But the Lady Hawks rallied and carried a 39-29 lead into the half. Huntingdon led by as many as 19 points in the second half before Piedmont battled back to within three points, in the final four minutes.

Huntingdon put the game away by hitting two field goals and 8-of-10 free throws in the final 2:16 of the game.

Huntingdon travels to LaGrange (12-9, 6-6 USA South) on Wednesday for a 4:30 p.m. game.