BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Birmingham-Southern women's basketball team lost their lead late to current #4 seed Rhodes on Sunday afternoon.

Both teams played very sound defensively to start the contest. BSC led 9-6 roughly halfway through the opening quarter, but a Rhodes three tied things up with 4:30 to go. The Panthers then started clicking offensively and went on a 12-1 run to close out the first period. Montana Harris and Lauryn Towns led the run having scored or assisted on all but two of the 12 BSC points. 

'Southern started the second quarter with a 21-10 lead and remained in front by eight after a Maya Cable three with 6:25 to go in the half. The Panthers looked to be in control, but the Lynx then went on a 13-0 run over the next five minutes to grab a hold of the game with 1:39 remaining. BSC however responded well with five consecutive points including an Aukeivah Tellis three-pointer to tie the score at 31 at the break.

BSC rode the wave of momentum from the end of the first half into the third quarter. The team played excellent high-pressure defense to retake the lead. The Panthers held the Lynx scoreless until Rhodes got their first points of the half with 5:43 remaining in the third period. However, they could not extend the lead as far as they would've liked and still only led by three. 'Southern led by five with 2:12 left in the third, but the Lynx cut the deficit to one heading into the final 10 minutes.

The fourth quarter was back-and-forth basketball with four ties and three lead changes. With 1:46 to go, both teams had scored 53 points. The Panthers hoped to pull off the upset, but Rhodes came up clutch with a 7-0 run to put the game out of reach with 23 seconds remaining. The visitors then closed the game out and went onto win, 62-58.

Records
Birmingham-Southern (5-20) (2-12 SAA), Rhodes (14-9) (9-4 SAA).

Up Next
Birmingham-Southern will be on the road for the SAA Quarterfinals next weekend with the date, time, and opponent TBD.