Box Score The Spring Hill College (SHC) women's basketball team returned to action after a two-week layoff on Monday evening and opened the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) portion of their schedule with a dominate 77-54 victory over the Paine College (PC) Lady Lions at the Arthur R. Outlaw Recreation Center.
 
The Lady Lions (5-7, 2-3 SIAC East) trailed the Badgers 10-7 after the 1^st quarter as both teams fought to shake off the holiday rust, but SHC maintained a 35-25 edge by halftime.
 
In the 3^rd quarter, SHC built out as much as a 16-point advantage at 52-36 with a minute and a half to play in the frame as the SHC interior play began to outmuscle the Lions. The 4^th quarter saw SHC race out to a 20-point lead with five minutes left on the clock and hold as much as a 27-point cushion with 30 seconds remaining.
 
Freshman guard Elise Reilly scored 17 points to lead the Badgers as fellow freshman forward Katie Krout added 12 points. Spring Hill shot 56% (28-50) overall in the contest including 57.1% (4-7) from 3-point territory. The Badgers also shot a season-high 89.5% (17-19) from the free throw line, but lost 27 turnovers to the high-pressure Paine defense that took away 20 steals. SHC controlled the boards with a 49-29 margin in rebounding as seniors Alishia DraytonLewis and Leah Washington hauling in 10 boards each. Washington also swatted away four blocked shots with SHC totaling nine rejections as a team.
 
For Paine, the Lady Lions shot just 28.8% (21-73) from the floor and 21.4% (3-14) from behind the 3-point arc while struggling at a 47.4% (9-19) pace from the charity stripe. Paine lost 13 turnovers to seven Badger steals, yet despite the disparity in turnover margin, PC managed to outscore Spring Hill only 11-8 off turnovers. Janisha Wilkerson dropped in a game-high 19 points for Paine with seven rebounds and four blocked shots. Tierra Boykin also contributed 10 points off the bench for the visitors from August, Ga.
 
Spring Hill (5-4, 1-0 SIAC West) now hits the road for a three-game swing through the SIAC East Division beginning on Thursday at 6 p.m. (EDT) versus the Fort Valley State University (FVSU) Lady Wildcats (3-8, 2-1 SIAC East) at the HPE Complex in Fort Valley, Ga.