WINCHESTER, Va. – Shenandoah University qualified for the 2011 USA South Conference women's basketball Tournament with a 57-39 home win over Mary Baldwin Wednesday evening.
The Hornets (11-10, 7-7 USA South) can finish no worse than the seventh seed thanks to their win over Mary Baldwin (7-15, 5-11) and a 47-44 Ferrum victory at Meredith.
The tournament begins on Tuesday, February 22 with quarterfinal round games at the Nos. 1 through 4 seeds. The semi-finals are scheduled for February 25 and the championship on the 27th.
The semi-finals and final are also at the highest remaining seeds in the tourney.
The Fighting Squirrels scored four of the first six points of the Wednesday's contest, but following a pair of Sierra Edwards buckets in the paint at the 16:00 and 15:19 marks, SU had a lead it would not relinquish.
Edwards' baskets, which represented four of her co-game-high 11 points on the evening, started a 10-0 Shenandoah run.
Sophomore Nicole Gilbertson capped the run with two free throws at 10:55 and the SU lead stayed at least four points the rest of the way.
MBC scored the opening bucket of the second, on a Denise Johnson jumper, before the Hornets reeled off a 12-2 spurt in 5:37 to erase all doubt to the contest's outcome.
Shenandoah had a least an 11-point lead for the final 10 minutes of the contest.
SU dominated on the glass, grabbing 55 of the game's 87 boards. Edwards had 12 of this total.
Gilbertson joined Edwards with 11 points each while Haley Smith added 10.
Ricks paced the Squirrels with nine.
The Hornets take on Ferrum on Saturday at 2:00 in Ferrum.