Lady Hawks win third straight with key win over Piedmont

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The Huntingdon women's basketball team held off a late Piedmont push to win 85-83 on Saturday.

The win was the third straight for Huntingdon (11-9, 5-6 USA South). With five conference games remaining, Huntingdon is fourth in the South Division of the USA South Athletic Conference.

Maryville (19-2), the 19th-ranked team in Division III, leads the South Division with an 11-1 conference record. LaGrange (15-6) is second at 10-2 and Piedmont (15-5) is third at 8-4. The top three teams in the South Division will advance to the conference tournament.

"This was a great win against a very good basketball team," Huntingdon head coach Buzz Phillips said. "I told our team if we did not perform on both ends of the floor, it would be tough to win this game. The girls responded and performed well. It was a close game, down to the wire, and it was a team win.

"We will enjoy this one until tomorrow. Then it's back to work to get ready for Lagrange on Wednesday."

Huntingdon will host LaGrange at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday.

On Saturday, Huntingdon took the lead a little more than four minutes into the game. The Lady Hawks would not trail for the remainder of the game and would lead by as many as 11 points in the first half and 14 points in the second half.

But Piedmont did not go quietly. After Mackenzie Garmany scored to give Huntingdon a 75-61 lead with 5:55 to play in the game, Piedmont answered and pulled within three points with 10 seconds left.

Huntingdon senior Pat Pickens hit 1-of-2 free throws with seven seconds remaining to make it 85-81. It was just enough. Piedmont scored with one second on the clock to make it a two-point game before Huntingdon ran off the final second.

Pickens finished with 21 points, eight rebounds and five assists. The senior pushed her career scoring total to 1,371 points. Former Lady Hawk Tiffany Jordan holds the program's NCAA-era record with 1,414 career points.

Tan Munford and Tiara Howton each scored 13 points and Garmany added 11 points and a career-high nine assists. Garmany finished one assist shy of the Lady Hawks' NCAA-era record of 10 assists in a game.

Jenna Dorman pulled down a team-high 11 rebounds to go with eight points and Savannah Ward had eight points and four assists and two steals.