Women's Basketball Soar Past the Night Hawks

Thomasville, Ga.- The Fire remained undefeated in conference play tonight as they took down Sun Conference opponent Thomas University by a score of 68-47 to advance their overall record to 6-2.
 
It was all the Fire from the tipoff as Madi Hecox drained a three pointer thirty seconds into the matchup to put the Fire up 3-0. The Fire never gave up the lead throughout the entirety of the 40 minute matchup and were ahead of the Night Hawks by as many as 19 points by the end of the first quarter after opening the quarter with a 16 point run. The Night Hawks struggled to outdo the Fire defense in the first quarter as the Fire recorded 13 points off of Night Hawk turnovers in the first 10 minutes of play and were only able to get 13 shots off against the Fire defense including a 2-8 field goal effort as opposed to the Fire's 9-17 from the field.
 
The Fire gradually cooled down offensively throughout the game and shot 43.7% from the field in the second quarter but were still able to outscore their opponents 19-14. Marissa Hamilton ended the first half leading the Fire offense with 10 points through 13 minutes of play and two rebounds after going 2-2 from the free throw line as well as securing a basket from beyond the three point arc to put the Fire up 38-14 with 3:30 remaining before halftime.
 
The Night Hawks outdid the Fire coming out of the locker room after going on an 8-0 run to open the third quarter and outscored the Fire 18-13. Collectively the Fire shot 42.9% from the field in the third quarter but were able to escape the quarter with a 55-36 lead.
 
The fourth quarter saw the largest Fire lead of the game with 7:39 remaining in the matchup as the Fire went ahead 64-39 after a fastbreak layup by Haley Howarth. Howarth would go on to score 10 points in the final quarter and would end the night as the Fire's leading scorer with 21 points, just one point shy of matching her season high. Jade Odom captained the defense with nine rebounds as well as six points of her own. The Fire collectively went a perfect 8-8 at the free throw line.
 
Next on the schedule for the Fire is a home conference matchup against Warner University on December 19^th at 2 p.m.