... finally got things going. Over the next 12 minutes the Braves took command of the game with a 24-8 run, led by seven straight points from senior Natasha Liggins, who topped UWG with 20 in the game.

"That was a pretty good win," UWG coach Craig Roden said. "We overcame some things, a lot of adversity today. I thought we fought hard. Our seniors really came through for us and played with a lot of poise and confidence down the stretch."

UWG's Tai Ellis, the conference's leading scorer, was held to 14 points but got 12 of those in the second half after being held without a field goal for the game's first 22 minutes.

"I knew the offense would come eventually," she said. "I was just trying to focus. [The first half] was very frustrating, but like my assistant coach always tells me – don't worry about the last shot you missed."

After shrugging off her five first-half misses, Ellis went 5-12 in the second half and finally got UWG over the hump with a jumper at the 5:56 mark to make the score 52-50 Braves. She came back with a pair of free throws with 4:07 to play to put UWG up 54-52 and give them the lead for good. Her buzzer-beating jumper with 2:03 to play put UWG up six, and UCA got only one more basket, from Randle, the rest of the way.

Ellis picked up her third foul with 9:37 to go in the first half and came out of the game shortly thereafter, but the Sugar Bears took only a three-point lead into the locker room at halftime – which was enough to give the Braves confidence.

"I felt like we had a pretty good chance to win the game right there," Roden said. "To go in with your two leading scorers playing maybe 20 minutes between them at the half, we felt like if we got a good half out of them we'd have a chance to win the game."