FERRUM, Va. — The Averett University women's basketball team fell to Ferrum College 74-68 in a conference matchup on Saturday evening.
 
Ferrum's Jacole Hairston opened the game shooting 5-for-6 from the field, scoring 12 points in under five minutes of play, but the Cougars shifted to a box-and-one defense with sophomore guard Da'Shanae Hardy face-guarding Hairston. Hardy, who had a season-high of 24 minutes, held Hairston to just two points for the remainder of the first half.
 
Ferrum (4-5, 2-1 USA South) led most of the way, but Averett (4-6, 2-2 USA South) knotted the game for the second time as senior point guard Aundrea Burns knocked down a 3-pointer on a dish from freshman guard Joelle Deese. Burns' last 12 points of the season have come from behind the arc.
 
The Cougars took their first lead of the game in the next possession when junior guard Jessica Myers found sophomore forward Alexis Sollars for a mid-range jumper to switch the momentum their way going into the break.     
 
Averett led 40-36 at halftime, with Hairston and power forward Kemani Crawford combining for 24 of Ferrum's 36 points.
 
Ferrum's 19-4 run to start the second half gave the Panthers an 11-point advantage when Zarkia Mattox nailed a 3-pointer with 14:12 to go in the game. Eight of the 19 points came from Mattox, which included snagging the rebound on her missed free throw attempt and sinking a jumper inside the paint to exchange one point for two. She had the only double-double of the game with 12 points and 11 rebounds.
 
Despite the lead, the Cougars came back from as much as a 12-point deficit and went on a run of their own outscoring the Panthers 15-5 in seven minutes. Myers kept Averett in the ball game relying on her speed to get to the rim. She led Averett with 22 points, with 13 in the second half. She also added five assists and two steals for the Cougars.  
 
Just under the five-minute mark, Hardy drove from the top of the key shooting over the hands of Panthers' center Jesse O'Connor to score a layup and tie the game at 63.
 
With 2:47 on the clock, forward Oneka Jones made two free throws to put Averett ahead by one, but Lindsay Martin answered with a long-range shot to put Ferrum up 70-68 with just over two minutes to play.
 
The game went back and forth with five more lead changes and two more ties in the last four-and-a-half minutes, and despite Panthers' 31 turnovers, they came out on top to pull out the conference win.
 
Shooting 9-for-11 from the floor and hitting all nine of her free throws, Hairston led all scorers with 29 points, and Crawford added 12 for the Panthers.
 
Sollars finished with 10 points and five rebounds, and freshman guard Samm Chandler added nine points and matched her career-high of five assists for Averett.
 
The Cougars travel further south for the third of a five-game road swing to take on LaGrange College at 4 p.m. on Saturday.