GREENWOOD - The Lander women's basketball team, led by LaShonda Chiles and Tiara Good, clinched a share of the Peach Belt Conference regular-season championship Saturday afternoon when the Lady Bearcats defeated Armstrong Atlantic State University, 97-87, in the regular-season finale at Horne Arena.
The PBC Tournament will be held March 5-9 at USC Aiken with the tournament winner receiving an automatic berth into the NCAA Division II National Tournament. The PBC tournament brackets will be announced Sunday night.
The Lady Bearcats improve to 19-11 overall and 13-7 in the PBC, while Armstrong Atlantic drops to 17-10, 11-9.
Chiles, who entered the game 27 points shy of tying the NCAA Division II career scoring record of 2,810, netted 23 points, while Good added 22 points and five assists. Chiles made 7-of-17 field goals, including 4-of-8 three pointers. She was also 5-of-6 from the free throw line. Stephanie Ponds added a double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds, while Shannon McKever had 13 points and six rebounds and Kianna Smith 10 points and five assists.
Lacey Willis led Armstrong Atlantic with a game-high 35 points, to go along with seven rebounds and seven assists. Willis connected on 16-of-23 field goals and 3-of-4 free throws. Alandris Griffin added 18 points, Kaneetha Gordon had 14 points and 12 rebounds, and Lindsey Holmes scored 12 points.
Lander, which led at halftime, 47-36, made 34-of-70 field goals for 48.6 percent, including 9-of-19 three pointers for 47.4 percent, and 20-of-25 from the free throw line for 80 percent.
Armstrong Atlantic was 37-of-73 from the field for 50.7 percent, including 4-of-17 from the three-point line, and 9-of-13 from the foul line for 69.2 percent.
The Lady Pirates jumped out to an 8-4 lead early in the game, only to have Lander come back and tie it at 9-9 with 15:07 left in the first half on a Ponds field goal. The Lady Bearcats built its first-half lead to as much as 13 points on two occasions before halftime -- 35-22 at the 5:37 mark and 37-24 at 3:49 -- before the Lady Pirates rallied to trim the lead to 40-34 on a three-pointer by Lindsey Holmes with 2:52 left in the half.
Ponds made two free throws, Chiles added a three-pointer and Good netted a two to give Lander its 11-point halftime lead.
Lander held a double-digit lead most of the second half and built it up to as many as 17 points at 60-43 with 16:36 left in the game.
Armstrong held Lander scoreless for almost two minutes near the end of the game as the Lady Pirates cut the margin to 93-87 on a Lacey Willlis jumper with 36 second left to play. Good and TaSheba Butler each made two free throws in the final 30 seconds of play for Lander's final points.
