Hairston's 39 points too much as Lady Lions lose first conference contest

FERRUM, Va. -- The Piedmont College women's basketball team's perfection in the USA South ended Friday night as Ferrum defeated the Lady Lions 80-67. The game was controlled by Ferrum's Jacole Hairston who scored 39 points for the Panthers going 14-of-22 from the floor and a near perfect 9-of-10 from the line.<br /> <br /> Piedmont was held scoreless over nearly the first six minutes of the game and trailed 14-0 to open the contest. Piedmont made an 8-0 run following the scoring drought to cut into the lead but the Panthers continued to knock down their own shots and brought their lead back to 24-11.<br /> <br /> Taylor Swoszowski drained a 3-pointer to start another Piedmont run, and Le'Shaunda Jones made a jumper to cut the lead to 24-19.<br /> <br /> At the half, the Lady Lions trailed the Panthers 37-25, and Ferrum strung together an 11-0 run over the span of two minutes to increase their lead to 20 points with 16:16 remaining in the game. Following that, the Lady Lions put together a run of their own scoring 15 straight to put themselves back in the game with 10:00 remaining.<br /> <br /> Piedmont was unable to keep pace with the Panthers in the final minutes as Ferrum hit all but two free throws in the final 3:30 of the game. The Lady Lions never led in the game and trailed by as many as 22 during the contest.<br /> <br /> Swoszowski led the team with 18 points in the game while Jones and BBrianna Barrett both contributed 10 points.<br /> <br /> Carly Sales led the team with 10 rebounds marking the third time this season she has hit double digits in rebounds.<br /> <br /> The loss marked the first for Piedmont in USA South play and their first loss on the road this season. Piedmont will be back in action on Sunday taking on Averett University as part of a doubleheader with the men's team with tipoff scheduled for 3 p.m.

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