MOUNT BERRY, Ga. - After scoring clutch buckets late in the fourth to force overtime, the Birmingham-Southern women's basketball team ran out of steam against conference rival Berry.

The Panthers got off to an excellent start on the road with a 7-2 run inside the opening three minutes. BSC held onto the lead with their aggressive defense until the Vikings tied things at 12 with 2:49 remaining in the opening quarter. 'Southern jumped out to a five-point lead once again after Maya Cable scored her ninth point in less than eight minutes of play, and Audra Putman knocked down the first of her four threes on the night. Berry went onto score the last five points of the quarter to make things all square, 17-17.

Both offenses struggled a majority of the second period with Berry scoring six to BSC's five until the final third of the quarter. The Vikings led 23-22 until two Montana Harris free throws got the scoring going with 3:37 left in the half. The Panthers would take a four-point lead with 38 seconds to go, but a foul on a three-point attempt put the Vikings at the line to end the quarter. Berry's Karlee Armstrong put in all three free throws to cut the deficit to one for the Vikings at the break.

The third quarter was similar to the first with both offenses coming out slow to start. Berry took a 32-30 lead with 7:08 remaining in the quarter then neither team scored for the next 2:15 until Montana Harris hit the jumper to tie the game once again. The action remained extremely close with the largest lead being two by either team. Berry would take a one-point lead with 1:48 to go, but Sheraton Foster then put the Panthers back up one after a Lauryn Towns steal on the defensive end to go into the final ten minutes with the lead. 

After slow starts in the first three quarters, Berry's came out flying with a 7-0 run in 1:02 to gain their largest lead of the night, 47-41. It looked like the Vikings might pull away, but the Panthers stayed in the game and never let the lead increase. They slowly started to climb back and eventually took the lead after Audra Putman drained a three with 3:06 remaining to go up 55-54. Needing to hold on, the Panthers then gave up an 8-2 run to the Vikings and found themselves down five with 33 seconds left in the game. 'Southern then was down four with 22 seconds left as the night looked to be over. However, Sheraton Foster came up clutch again with a three to cut the deficit to one with 10 seconds left. After intentionally fouling, the Vikings had a chance to stretch the lead to three. They went one of two at the line, and senior Audra Putman gave her team a lifeline with an ice cold bucket with one second to go to force overtime.

BSC hoped to ride the high of forcing overtime late, but the Vikings controlled the first overtime period with a 76-67 lead with 1:36 remaining. Berry then went on to win the thriller, 76-72.

Records
Birmingham-Southern (4-14) (1-6 SAA), Berry (10-7) (4-2 SAA).

Up Next
Birmingham-Southern will remain in Georgia and play Oglethorpe in Atlanta on Sunday, Jan. 21 at 1:00 p.m. EST.