Box Score AUGUSTA, Ga. – The Spring Hill College (SHC) women's basketball team picked up a 70-62 Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) road victory over the  Paine College Lady Lions in the HEAL Complex on Monday evening.

Spring Hill grabbed a 22-10 lead after the first quarter of play and maintained a 41-29 advantage going into halftime, but the Lady Lions (4-7, 2-3 SIAC East) rallied to cut their deficit down to 47-44 with 2:23 remaining in the third period of play.

The Badgers fought back to reclaim a 56-49 cushion with six minutes left in the contest and outscored the Lady Lions 21-16 in the fourth period to secure a winning start to 2016.

Following the contest, SHC head coach Karen McConico was pleased that her team responded to the challenge Paine presented. "We played a better overall game tonight," she said. "We took care of the ball a lot better and we played a great team game."

Sophomore guards Jennifer Clark and Jewel Hill led SHC with 14 and 13 points respectively while junior center Leah Washington added 11 points. Junior forward Camry Johnson hauled down a game-high 12 rebounds as the Badgers took a 33-31 edge in rebounding. SHC continued to struggle with ball security by losing 18 turnovers to eight Paine steals, but shot a healthy 47.1% (24-51) from the floor including a 30.8% (4-13) effort from 3-point range.

For Paine, Ashley Watts had a game-high 20 points as the Lady Lions shot 42.3% (22-52) overall and 66.7% (4-6) in 3-point attempts. SHC took away eight steals as Paine lost the ball 13 times.

The Badgers (4-8, 2-1 SIAC West) will host SIAC East Division opponent the Fort Valley State University Lady Wildcats (2-10, 1-3 SIAC East) at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday at the Arthur R. Outlaw Recreation Center.