BROWNWOOD, Texas — Hardin-Simmons used a strong second-half surge to beat Mississippi College 77-71 in the quarterfinals of the American Southwest Conference Tournament on Friday afternoon at the Brownwood Coliseum.

Mississippi College had the biggest lead by either team in the game by a score of 23-15 with 7:30 to play in the first half, but the Cowgirls closed the half with solid play and cut it to 32-30 at halftime. MC led 41-34 with 16:31 to play but the Cowgirls rallied.

Sophomore guard Alexis Popelar scored 18 points in the second half and hit all four of her 3-point attempts to fuel the Cowgirls. She hit a three-pointer on three straight trips to cut the 41-34 deficit to 44-43 and Lindsey Newcombe's two free throws a few seconds later gave HSU their first lead since early in the first half at 45-44.

Newcombe hit a couple of more jumpers to make it 50-46 with 11:38 to play and to cap a 16-5 run over a 4:39 span. MC tied the game at 50-50 and it was back and forth the rest of the way.

The game was tied at 69 with 1:16 to play when Coco Cartwright hit a big 3-pointer. Cartwright then hit five of six free throws in the final :27 to seal the win.

Popelar led the Cowgirls with a career-best 28 points, Newcombe had 22 points and 17 rebounds and Cartwright scored eight of her points in the final 1:16 to finish with 10 points and also dished out nine assists.

Newcombe passed Donna Rogers for the school's rebounding record in the win. She now has 1,258 rebounds in her career.

Traci Rodgers led MC with 24 points off the bench and Jaleesa Taylor had 16.

HSU is now 19-6 on the year and will play defending league champion Louisiana College, a 64-54 winner over Mary Hardin-Baylor, at 2 p.m. on Saturday. Mississippi College finished its season with a record of 17-9.

The games can be heard on www.hsuathletics.com and can be watched free on the internet at http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/asc.portal.

---  HSU ---