The Centre women's basketball team pulled out to a lead late in the first half, and held off a late Berry comeback on the way to a 72-65 victory in a Southern Athletic Association game Friday in Rome, Ga.

Despite Berry coming into the game at 16-7 on the year and 8-4 in the SAA with Centre at 8-14 and 4-8 in the league, the Colonels were able to knock off the Vikings for the second time this season and hand them their first home loss of the year. Centre also pulled out a seven-point win in the teams' first meeting, a 65-58 final on Jan. 30 in Danville. 

Freshman Paige Kellam (Hebron, Ky.) scored 21 points in the second half on the way to a career-high 25 to lead Centre. Teammates Maggie Hartlage (Louisville, Ky.) and Alexis Guy (Chagrin Falls, Ohio) joined Kellam in double figures with 14 and 10 points respectively, while Emma Cook had 18 points to lead Berry.

The game went back and forth early with 10 lead changes over the first 12 minutes, but the Colonels took the lead for good on a layup by Guy at the 7:30 mark in the first half. Helped by 3-pointers from Hartlage and Caroline Andreassen (Palm Harbor, Fla.) and a pair of layups from Kellam, the Colonels put some distance between themselves and the Vikings by outscoring Berry 14-5 over the rest of the half. 

After going to the half down 29-21, Berry chipped away at the lead, but Kellam kept Centre in front by scoring the team's first eight points of the second half. After Berry cut the lead to three, Centre went on a 13-2 run with Kellam scoring the last six points to push the margin out to 50-36, the Colonels' largest lead of the game.

Berry gave the Colonels a late scare, scoring seven straight in less than a minute to make the score 65-61 with 3:14 left, but it was as close as the Vikings would get. Five Olivia Colliver (Mount Sterling, Ky.) free throws helped Centre hold on for the victory.

Centre shot 53 percent (27-of-51) from the field, the team's second best shooting performance this season, while holding Berry to 40 percent (23-of-58). The Colonels also doubled up Berry's 3-point percentage, going 44 percent (4-of-9) to the Vikings' 22 percent (4-of-18). Each team pulled down 32 rebounds.

The teams wrap up their regular seasons on Sunday when Centre (9-14, 5-8 SAA) travels to Oglethorpe, and Berry (16-8, 8-5 SAA) hosts Sewanee.