ROCKY MOUNT, N.C. – The Shenandoah University women's basketball team earned its fifth victory in the past seven games with a 70-65 USA South Conference win over N.C. Wesleyan Sunday afternoon.
The win is also the 14th straight for SU (9-9, 5-6 USA South) in the longtime series with NCWC (3-15, 2-11).
The victory also gives the Hornets a sweep of the season series with the Lady Bishops.
Wesleyan has not beaten SU since winning a one-point contest in January 2005.
Unlike the first matchup of the season, an 85-72 win January 8 in which Shenandoah led virtually throughout, Sunday's contest was much tighter.
After the Hornets opened up a 26-19 lead with 3:55 remaining in the first thanks to a 17-4 run, NCWC scored 10 of the final 15 points of the period to get itself back into the ballgame.
Only a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Ashley Council allowed SU to take a 34-26 lead into the halftime lockerroom.
Senior Sierra Edwards keyed the spurt with 11 of her game-high 27 points; as part of a larger 19-6 run that started at the 10:57 mark, Edwards scored 10 straight points for the victors.
After Nicole Gilbertson got the second half scoring on a layup 30 seconds into the stanza, Wesleyan began to chip into the SU lead.
The Bishops reeled off a 13-4 run over the next 3:56 to cut the deficit to just one, 40-39, with 14:44 remaining.
Although it would take NCWC another 6:23 to tie the game, the two teams would be separated by no more than five points the rest of the way.
The two teams traded the lead four times and were tied on four other occasions in the next 3:24 before Shenandoah finally seized control for good when Kerby Hatter drained a pair from the foul line at the 4:39 mark.
Council, who finished with seven steals, posted three of them in the next 60 seconds to help the Hornets to a four-point lead.
SU then hit four of six from the charity stripe in the final 1:51 to ice the victory.
In addition to Edwards' 27, Council had a career-high 12 and Gilbertson 11 with eight rebounds.
Samantha Urquhart paced the hosts with 15 points.
Shenandoah is off for the next six days and returns to action on Saturday with a 2 p.m. contest against Peace.