DAHLONEGA — The University of North Georgia women's basketball team led wire-to-wire to earn its tenth victory of the season with a 75-62 Peach Belt Conference triumph over Lander on Monday evening in UNG's Memorial Hall. Kelsey Hutchins came off the bench to lead all scorers with 24 points on a blistering 10-of-11 shooting from the floor to pace the Nighthawks' offensive attack.
North Georgia jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the opening two minutes and led 23-12 early in the second quarter.
A jumper from Deana Blankinship increased the Nighthawk lead to 39-25 with 1:32 to go in the first half. Reynolds connected on a shot at the buzzer to cut the Bearcat deficit to 41-29 at the break.
North Georgia built an 18-point lead on a Mackenzie Durrah layup to make the score 51-33 with 5:53 remaining in the third quarter. Lander cut the lead to 57-48 at the 9:20 mark of the fourth quarter on a layup from Tabitha Dailey, but UNG responded with another 4-0 run.
The Bearcats made a final run, trimming the deficit to 65-57 on a Johnson layup with 3:13 left to play, but the Nighthawks held on to hand Lander its first PBC loss of the year.
