MORROW, Ga. – A fourth quarter burst and a career game from senior center Aleisha Merriweather (Augusta, Ga.) would be all it would take as Clayton State (5-4, 1-2 PBC) pulled away from Lincoln Memorial (6-5, 3-2 SAC) to earn an 81-69 victory after a back-and-forth affair in an NCAA Division II women's basketball game on Monday, December 31.
 
Merriweather dropped a career-high 26 points on 10-of 14 shooting and made it a double-double with 10 boards, five offensive, in 27 minutes to lead the Lakers while redshirt-junior guard Madison Newby (Lawrenceville, Ga.) added 18 points with a team-high four assists.
 
Junior guard Taneria Wilson (Fort Pierce, Fla.) finished with 11 points and five boards and sophomore guard Tatiana Foster (Atlanta, Ga.) added eight points and six caroms. Junior forward Kelsie Towns (Butler, Ga.) rounded things out with a career-high nine points on 4-of-8 shooting.
 
The Railsplitters would come out on fire as they jumped out to a 15-6 lead with just 5:29 gone by in the opening quarter before Clayton State rebounded to cut the gap to 21-18 behind a 12-6 stretch at the end of the frame. That margin would shrink to just one with a bucket to open the second and eventually disappear off of a Merriweather layup that put the Lakers up 24-23 by the 8:34 mark.
 
LMU would regain the lead seconds later with a jumper from Griffith but would not be able to hold it. With the score at 26-24, Clayton State put together a 14-2 run over the next 5:06 as both Merriweather and Wilson accounted for six points apiece to flip the script and pull ahead 38-28 with 2:26 on the clock. From there, the Railsplitters would get off the deck and close the half with a 9-3 rally to make it 41-37 at the break.
 
The third quarter would be the most competitive of the game as the clubs would be separated by no more than four points, would see the lead change hands three times and deadlocked four times. The last of the later would see the teams knotted at 53-53 heading into the final period.
 
That frame would see a three by Merriweather give Clayton State back the lead just eight seconds in and spark a 5-0 burst that put them up 58-53 in the first minute. LMU would respond by closing to within one point on a pair of occasions, the last at 60-59 with 7:53 remaining.
 
From there the Lakers took control as they put together an impressive 21-10 game-ending run behind nine points from Newby and seven from Merriweather. That stretch would also see 7-of-11 shooting from the foul line down the stretch to close out the 81-69 victory.
 
Emily Griffith led the Railsplitters with 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting but it would be her sister Rachel that put up their top performance, finishing with 12 points, seven boards, three assists and a pair of steals. They were joined by Sydney Duggins and Dasia Maxwell with 11 and 10 points, respectively, and Sydney Newsome dished out a game-high five assists to go with four boards.
 
The Lakers are back in action in the New Year as they take a two-game road trip beginning at Augusta on Saturday, January 5. Tip-off is set for 1:30 p.m. at Christenberry Fieldhouse in Augusta, Georgia.
 
NOTES
Merriweather had previously scored 20 points in a game twice, most recently at No. 3 Carson-Newman on November 20, 2018 … Towns' nine points surpassed her previous career-high of eight set at Shorter on November 27, 2018.
 

Lincoln Memorial vs. Clayton State (12/31/18) - First

 

Lincoln Memorial vs. Clayton State (12/31/18) - Second

-