Lady Hawks can’t overcome slow start against Piedmont

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The Huntingdon women's basketball team battled back from a 27-point deficit but couldn't complete the comeback in a 77-70 loss to Piedmont on Sunday.

Piedmont scored the first 10 points of the game, led 21-2 a little more than six minutes into the game and took a 37-10 lead with 8:48 left in the first half. Huntingdon answered with a 27-9 run to close the first half and only trailed 46-37 at halftime.

In the second half, the Lady Hawks continued to cut into Piedmont's lead and pulled within three points on a pair of Pat Pickens free throws with 2:09 to play. But Piedmont hit 5-of-6 free throws and one field goal to close out the game.

Pickens finished with 33 points, two short of the program-record 35 she scored at Piedmont last weekend. With the performance, Pickens passed Dusti Doss to become the Lady Hawks' third leading scorer during the NCAA era. The junior from Anniston, Ala. has 943 career points.

With 391 points this season, she needs 12 more points to break the Lady Hawks' NCAA-era single-season scoring record held by Tiffany Jordan.

Raven Prater added 10 points on Sunday and Tan Munford pulled down 14 rebounds.

With three USA South Athletic Conference games remaining, Huntingdon (15-7, 7-6 USA South) is fourth in the South Division behind Maryville (19-4, 12-2), Piedmont (15-8, 9-5) and LaGrange (14-9, 8-6). The top three teams will qualify for the conference tournament.

Huntingdon travels to Covenant on Wednesday for a 4:30 p.m. game.