Women’s basketball advances to USA South semifinals

GREENSBORO, N.C. – The Huntingdon women's basketball team took the next step on Saturday.

In their sixth season in the USA South Athletic Conference, the Lady Hawks advanced to the conference tournament semifinals for the first time with a 57-47 win over Greensboro College.

Huntingdon (22-4) will play Piedmont (21-5) in the semifinals on Feb. 23 at noon (Central). The two teams split in the regular season with Piedmont winning 82-67 at Huntingdon on Jan. 5 and Huntingdon winning 75-59 at Piedmont on Feb. 2.

Berea (21-5) and Averett (18-8) will play in the other semifinal. The winners will play for the conference championship on Feb. 24. The semifinals and final will be played at Piedmont.

This is the third straight season Huntingdon has reached the conference tournament. The Lady Hawks' previous best finish in the tournament was a quarterfinal loss in 2017. Huntingdon will carry a 12-game winning streak into the conference semifinals.

Against Greensboro (19-7), Huntingdon built a double-digit lead early and held off a rally by the Pride. Huntingdon led 17-7 at the end of the first quarter and led by 16 points in the second quarter.

By halftime, Greensboro had pulled within eight points, 34-26. The Pride cut Huntingdon's lead to 44-41 with 6:25 to play in the game, but Huntingdon answered and finished strong.

Leading 47-43 with 3:31 to play, senior Hannah Parks hit a 3-pointer to push the Lady Hawks' lead back to seven points. Greensboro pulled within five points twice in the final three minutes before a basket by Shaonica Thomas, two free throws by T.I. Duncan and one free throw by Indya Lawrence helped Huntingdon clinch the win.

Duncan led Huntingdon with a double-double of 21 points and 12 rebounds and Thomas turned in a double-double of 13 points and 11 rebounds. Parks added 12 points and eight rebounds and Lawrence finished with six rebounds.

Records: Huntingdon (22-4); Greensboro (19-7)

Coming Up: Huntingdon will play Piedmont in the USA South semifinals at noon (Central) on Feb. 23. Piedmont, the No. 1 seed in the West Division, will host the semifinals and final.