HATTIESBURG, Miss. – The William Carey Women's Basketball Team clinched the Southern States Athletic Conference Regular Season Title with a 79-59 victory over UT-Southern Saturday afternoon at Clinton Gym.
 
"Great win for our team today," said Head Coach Tracy English. "It was a hard-fought game and I'm excited for the players to get the SSAC Regular Season Title. This group has worked hard and stayed focused on the prize from the moment they walked on campus in the fall."
 
The Lady Crusaders raced out to a 15-3 lead to open the first quarter with Jenna Garriga knocking down eleven of those points. From there, Carey went on to extend their lead to 21-5 with under four minutes remaining on six straight points by Leah Sutton.
 
However, over the final minutes, the Firehawks switched things up on defense, leading to five turnovers while the offense found their footing, outscoring WCU 12-4 to cut the deficit to eight points.
 
Both teams struggled offensively over the first five minutes of the second quarter, as there were just a combined eleven points scored. The final five minutes saw both teams go back and forth with Carey going on to take a 40-31 lead into halftime.
 
Shaneal Corpuz, Sutton, and Rose Warren opened the third quarter on a 6-1 run to make it fourteen-point advantage after two minutes of play. Things went back forth over the next five minutes but with WCU leading 54-43 the WCU offense went cold with the Firehawks finding the spark they had in the first quarter, as they outscored the Lady Crusaders 8-2 to make it a five-point game.
 
UT-Southern on multiple occasions cut the deficit to three points in the opening minute of the fourth quarter but each time the Lady Crusaders answered. With Carey holding a 62-56 lead with eight minutes to play, they pulled away for good, on a 17-1 run by Madelyn Ladner, Warren, and Garriga.
 
Jenna Garriga finished with a career-high 15 points. Rose Warren also finished with 15 points to go along with ten assists with Shaneal Corpuz adding 14 points. Leah Sutton chipped in 12 points and pulled down 10 rebounds with Madelyn Ladner finishing with 10 points.
 
Carey is back in action Saturday, February 15, as they take on Talladega College in non-conference action. Play is set to begin at 2:00 pm at Clinton Gym.