MORROW, Ga. – Continuing the trend of being the team no one wants to play this time of year, Clayton State (12-11, 9-8 PBC) knocked off the third straight Peach Belt Conference team ahead of them in the standings as they upset Flagler (14-7, 12-5 PBC) by a 57-56 score in an NCAA Division II women's basketball game on Saturday, February 10.
 
Senior forward Abreyln Rackley (St. Louis, Mo.) powered the Lakers offense with 19 points along with nine boards while junior center Aleisha Merriweather (Augusta, Ga.) finished with seven points, six rebounds and three blocks in 21 minutes.
 
Freshman guard Tatiana Foster (Atlanta, Ga.) fueled the offense with a career-high eight assists and picked up three steals. Freshman guard Dalania Clardy (Riverdale, Ga.) added seven points and a pair of blocks and senior guard Aysia Grimsley (Marietta, Ga.) chipped in with six points and three assists.
 
Flagler jumped out to an early 11-4 lead over the first 6:20 before extending to a 20-12 advantage by the 9:49 mark of the second quarter. At that point, Rackley would score the Lakers next nine points and fuel a 9-6 charge that cut it to 26-21 with 5:43 left in the first half.
 
Trailing 32-25 just over two minutes later, Clayton State scored six of the next seven points to pull within 33-31 with 10 seconds left before FC notched a pair of free throws with less than a second left to take a 35-31 margin into the break.
 
Rackley would strike again, this time at the start of the second half, as she drained back-to-back three pointers to spark an 8-2 run that gave the Lakers a 39-37 lead by the 7:07 mark. The Saints quickly answered back with four straight points to retake the lead, 41-39, only to deadlock at 42-42 with 3:24 on the clock. The teams would tie twice more before Grimsley knocked down a pair of free throws to close the period with a 46-45 lead.
 
Following a 47-47 tie in the opening minute of the fourth, Flagler would take a one point lead before consecutive buckets by junior forward Velencia Johnson (Hoover, Ala.) pushed them ahead, 51-48, with 7:01 left. Bri Roberts would respond quickly with a game-tying triple at the other end and 6-5 post Tabitha Odabe gave the Saints a 53-51 lead with 4:30 left.
 
It would take two minutes off the clock but Rackley tied it up with a layup and Merriweather, who played much of the game in foul trouble, came off the bench to put the Lakers up 55-53 with just under two minutes left. A minute later it would be Rackley again, this time pushing the lead to four with 51 seconds left as she laid it up and in.
 
Playing without Odabe, who fouled out with less than four minutes to go, FC turned to its outside game as Roberts drilled a three from the corner to cut it to 57-56 at the 41 second mark.
 
Clayton State would proceed to turn it over at the other end with 19 seconds left, putting Flagler in position to win it at the buzzer. Coming out of a Saints timeout with eight seconds remaining, the Lakers forced an errant pass with two seconds left to get the ball back. On the ensuing inbound they went deep and collected the pass to run out the clock on the one point upset victory.
 
Roberts dropped a game-high 23 points as Flagler's lone double-figure scorer and added six rebounds while Tiffany Hodge had eight points, six boards and three assists. They were joined by Malaysia Robinson with seven points, seven caroms and three steals and Odabe added five points, six rebounds and just one block.
 
The Lakers remain on the road as they travel to Augusta on Monday, February 12 for the second game of their three game road swing. Game time is set for 5:30 p.m. in Augusta, Georgia.
 
NOTES
Clayton State held Odabe to a season low tying six rebounds and one block … each had happened only once before … on the season the 6-5 center, the tallest player in the PBC, has recorded 14 double-figure rebound games, including twice going over 20 in a single game, and came in averaging 4.2 blocks … the Lakers have now knocked off Francis Marion (13-6, 10-4 PBC at the time), Georgia College (14-7, 11-4 PBC) and Flagler in their last three games to pull within a game of the sixth spot in the league.