Basketball Defeats St. Andrews 73-60 in AAC Opener

Gainesville, Georgia- The Brenau basketball team used a strong defensive effort to defeat St. Andrews (NC) University 73-60 in the opening game of Appalachian Athletic Conference competition on Wednesday.

Cameron Mims and Lia Thomas combined for 32 points and 14 rebounds and the Golden Tigers defense held the visiting Knights to 31% shooting as Brenau captured its first conference win of the season.

In the first quarter, Brenau jumped out to a quick lead as Kaylyn Brooks and Madison Phillips hit back to back buckets to make the score 12-7. At the 3:29 mark, a driving layup by Dyiesha Brown increased the lead to 14-7, and then after the Knights' Yontyana Melvin scored on a putback, Brenau's Tiara Ellis nailed a three-pointer from the top of the key to stretch the lead to 17-9. However, three consecutive Brenau turnovers helped St. Andrews put together at a 6-1 run to close the quarter with a score of 18-15.

The Golden Tigers defense responded in the second quarter as the team rallied to a 23-14 run to give the home team a 43-31 halftime lead. After the intermission, Brenau continued to pressure St. Andrews as the lead stretched to 19 points on a Mims layup. In the fourth quarter, the Knights rallied to get the score as close as six points, but were unable to overcome their deficit.

Brenau shot 47% (26-55), including a blistering 59% (17-29) in the first half, while St. Andrews was 20-65 (31%) from the floor.

Mims led all scorers with 17 points and five rebounds, while Thomas added 16 points and nine rebounds. Jane Lester added eight points and four rebounds in the win.

Samantha Ring led St. Andrews with 11 points and seven rebounds.

Brenau (3-1 overall, 1-0 AAC) next travels to Columbia College (1-1 overall, 0-1 AAC) on Saturday for a 2 pm AAC matchup.