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#21 Lady Hawks ease past Reinhardt, 83-53
By Matt Green
ROME -- Shelby Farrer scored 15 points, Brittney Smith had 13 points and eight rebounds and No. 21-ranked Shorter University breezed past visiting Reinhardt 83-53 in non-league women's basketball action on Tuesday night at Winthrop-King Centre.
Kelly Ellison had another solid all-around game with nine points, nine assists and four rebounds for Shorter (4-0), which jumped out to a big lead midway through the first half and never looked back.
The Lady Hawks used a 10-0 run sparked by a 3-pointer from Abbie Daniel and capped by a three-point play from Smith to take a 25-10 lead with 10:26 left in the first half. Shorter led 36-25 at halftime behind nine first half points from Smith.
Shorter quickly expanded its lead to 21 by outscoring Reinhardt 10-0 over the first 2:58 of the second half. Ellison hit a 3-pointer to put Shorter up 46-25 at the 17:02 mark and the Lady Hawks shot 55 percent (18-for-33) in the second half to slowly pull away from the Eagles (1-3).
Back-to-back treys from Allison Danner and Emily Trew grew Shorter's lead to 32 with 1:59 to play. The Lady Hawks converted on 7 of 18 attempts from beyond the arc.
Robyn Foster and Daniel also reached double figures for Shorter with 11 and 10 points, respectively. Shorter's aggressive defense swiped 13 steals and forced 22 Reinhardt turnovers while the Lady Hawks coughed up the basketball just 10 times. Shorter assisted on 23 of its 32 field goals.
Danner came off the bench to score eight points for Shorter, which outrebounded Reinhardt 42-33. The Lady Hawks collected 15 offensive rebounds on the night.
Rebecca Yarbrough led Reinhardt with 10 points and was the only Eagle to reach double figures. Reinhardt was held to 39 percent shooting and went just 3-for-12 from three. Reinhardt's leading scorer Kayla Aiken managed only two points on 1 of 6 shooting.
Shorter opens Southern States Athletic Conference play on Friday night at 5:30 pm when it plays host to Faulkner University.
