GREENWOOD – The Lander women's basketball team got 23 points from Jessica Harris and handed North Georgia its first Peach Belt Conference loss in almost a year, beating the No. 10 ranked Nighthawks 87-81 Saturday afternoon at Horne Arena.

The Bearcats won their eighth straight, improving to 12-3 overall while leading the PBC at 7-0 ahead of Monday afternoon's game against second-place Clayton State.

"Just a great effort," said head coach Kevin Pederson. "We felt like we had a good game plan for them and a decent strategy if we just stuck to it. We just hope we can get to that level of consistency and hopefully we can start finding a groove out there."

North Georgia's 22-game winning streak against PBC opponents came to an end as the Nighthawks fell to 14-2, 7-1.

North Georgia came into the game with an eight-game winning streak but suffered its first defeat since Nov. 30, 2019. It was the team's first conference loss since Jan. 30, 2019, at Lander.

The Bearcats trailed 11-1 early but outscored the visitors 47-24 over the final 15-plus minutes of the first half to build a 48-35 lead at halftime. North Georgia only briefly got within six points in the second half.

It was Lander's second victory over a Top 10 team this season. The Bearcats beat then No. 9 Anderson University back on Nov. 19.

Harris scored her 23 points on nine of 14 shooting from the floor while adding five assists and four steals. The senior is now 38 points away from passing Lorain Truesdale for sixth on the program's all-time scoring list.

Zamiya Passmore added a double-double for Lander with 18 points and 11 assists.

Two other Bearcats flirted with double-doubles. Tabitha Dailey had 11 points and nine rebounds, while Makaila Cange added nine points and nine boards.

Aniaya Jester added nine points for Lander while Quin'De'Ja Hamilton also scored nine points, making three of four shots from behind the 3-point arc.

Macey Gregg paced North Georgia with 21 points and eight assists. Julianne Sutton added 18 points while leading the team with eight boards. Faith Arthur scored 12 points and Kara Groover 11 for the Nighthawks.

The Bearcats missed their first seven shots and were down 11-1 before Dailey's layup with 5:50 left in the opening quarter gave Lander its first points from the floor.

Dailey's basket was the start of a 23-7 close to the first period as the Bearcats turned up the defensive pressure and forced several North Georgia turnovers.

Groover's 3 from the left side gave the Nighthawks a 16-10 lead. But Cange made a shot off the glass, Jester grabbed a defensive rebound and raced ahead of the pack for a layup, and Jester drew an offensive charge and then hit an open 3 from the left corner on the change of possession to give Lander its first lead at 17-16. The Bearcats would not trail again.

Passmore and Harris added steals and layups to help Lander build its lead to 24-18 after one quarter. The Bearcats forced 11 turnovers in the period.

Cange's put-back high off the glass extended Lander's advantage to 40-31 with 3:15 to go until halftime. Hamilton's open 3 from the left side off a cross-court pass from Passmore gave the Bearcats their first double-digit lead at 45-35 at the 1:15 mark.

Harris's off-balance trey off a tipped pass in the right corner with three seconds to go gave Lander a 48-35 advantage at the break.

Hamilton hit a 3 from the left side, giving the Bearcats their largest lead of the game at 59-43 with 4:19 left in the third period.

Arthur's basket capped a 7-0 run as North Georgia drew within 61-52 late in the third. But a trey from Sarah Crews and a Harris baseline jumper extended Lander's lead to 66-54 going into the final quarter.

Gregg's basket with 4:04 to go pulled the Nighthawks within 75-69, their smallest deficit of the second half.

But the Bearcats responded when Passmore hit a jumper in the lane and Harris knocked down a 3 from the left corner, extending their lead to 80-69 with three minutes left.

Lander ran the shot clock down under a minute when Passmore split two defenders and scored inside for an 86-74 advantage.

#cLawsUp | @LanderWBB