Box Score FAIRFIELD, Ala. –The Spring Hill College (SHC) women's basketball team earned a hard-fought 71-66 Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) nail-biting victory over the Miles College Lady Golden Bears at Knox-Windham Gymnasium on Thursday night.
 
SHC led the Lady Golden Bears (8-10, 3-4 SIAC West) 8-3 at the first media timeout with 4:55 to go in the opening period and maintained a 19-12 cushion heading into the 2^nd quarter. Miles sliced the margin down to 21-16 early in the period off a successful three-point hoop-and-the-harm play by Morgan Hardy, but Spring Hill would hold a 39-28 lead at halftime as freshman guard Elise Reilly led the way with 13 points off 5-of-10 shooting including three 3-point buckets. The Badgers blistered the nets for a 63% (17-27) performance in the first 20 minutes of play, but surrendered nine turnovers and allowed the Bears 21 trips to the free throw line for 16 points.
 
Miles heated up on offense to open the 3^rd quarter, but SHC used fast break opportunities to maintain the momentum and hold a 47-37 bulge 4½ minutes into the stanza and a 55-46 lead heading into the final 10 minutes of play.
 
The teams traded buckets to put the score 57-48 with 8:30 left on the clock, but Miles rallied to make it a 59-56 game with 6:33 remaining. Ashley Steger of Miles put a layup in the hoop to make it just a 61-60 SHC lead as the Bears continued to fight back. Following a timeout by head coach Karen McConico, SHC made it 64-60 at 3:20 and continued to lead 66-62 at the 1:56 mark. Miles answered with a 16-foot jumper at 1:46 and the Badgers responded with a fast break basket by senior forward Camry Johnson as SHC called a timeout with 45.7 showing. Johnson then hauled in a huge rebound of a Miles miss at 28.1 seconds. Senior center Leah Washington would convert 1-of-2 free throws at 26 seconds as SHC clung to a 69-64 margin that withered to 69-66 with a Bear layup at 15.1 seconds.
 
Washington again stepped to the line for free throws and made the first, but missed the follow up for a 70-66 SHC advantage followed by a Miles missed jumper and final rebound by point guard Jennifer Clark who completed 1-of-2 free throws at .5 seconds left to secure the Badger victory.
 
Washington finished the night with 17 points for the Badgers while Reilly scored 16 points and senior forward Alishia DraytonLewis dropped in 14 points. Johnson came off the bench for another 10 points. The Badgers shot a healthy 54.9% (28-51) from the field including a scorching 57.1% (4-7) from 3-point distance, but hurt themselves with 23 personal fouls and 17 turnovers against seven steals by Miles.
 
Miles shot just 31.1% (19-61) overall and struggled to a 9.1% (1-11) effort from 3-point range while losing 11 turnovers to six SHC steals. The Bears kept the game within distance by making 27-of-32 free throws in the contest while SHC made just 11 of their 23 charity shots. Larian Scott scored 13 points and Victoria Sutton added 11 from the bench while Ashley McCrear led all rebounders with 10 boards. Miles took a 38-36 edge in overall rebounding.
 
Spring Hill (10-7, 5-3 SIAC West) closes out this SIAC West Division road trip on Saturday at 1 p.m. versus the Lane College Lady Dragons (6-12, 5-4 SIAC West)  in J.F. Lane Gymnasium in Jackson, Tenn.