THOMASVILLE, Ga. – It was senior night for the Lady Night Hawks, and the three standouts did not disappoint.  Jessica Anderson, Courtney Saunds, and Ivory Smith delivered for Thomas to pick up the 73-64 victory over Johnson and Wales.
 
The Lady Wildcats opened the game with a 4-0 run and then set stagnant.  Thomas powered back on a 10-2 run to take the 10-6 lead in the first six minutes of action.  JWU would claw back into the game to take the 24-16 lead with 7:05 remaining until the break.
 
Dissatisfied with their approach, head coach Coretta Brown called a timeout to regroup her squad.  Immediately, the Lady Night Hawks responded.  The squad chipped away at JWU's gap to take the 27-26 lead with 1:19 left until the half.  Over the last 80 seconds, Thomas would increase its lead to head into the intermission up 31-26.
 
The Lady Night Hawks extended their lead to a game height of 20, 56-36, in the first nine minutes of the second half and then faltered.  Johnson and Wales locked down on pressure defense and out rebounded the Lady Night Hawks on the offense glasses leading to 16 second chance points.  While JWU continued to cut TU's lead to six, 68-62, with 66 seconds remaining in regulation, the Lady Night Hawks' earlier lead was too much to overcome.
 
The Hunter Green and White captured the 73-64 victory on Senior Night picking up their tenth win of the season.
 
Saunds led the way for the Lady Night Hawks picking up her second highest, single game points total of the season.  The Darien, Ga., native scored 24 points while bringing down seven rebounds, dishing out three assists, and picking up three steals.  Two other Lady Night Hawks were in double figures on the evening.  Anderson netted 14 points with four rebounds while Bria Joyner-Williams narrowly missed a double-double with 11 points and eight rebounds.
 
Brown reflected, "We had great support today for our Senior Day. The game was back and forth then up and down, but we kept battling and didn't back down!  I've really enjoyed coaching these seniors. They will definitely be missed."
 
Thomas improves to 10-14, 7-8 TSC, while the Lady Wildcats drop to 10-16, 5-10 on the year.
 
The Lady Night Hawks return to action on Tuesday, Feb. 17 when they travel to Daytona, Fla., to face Sun Conference rival Embry-Riddle.  Tipoff is set for 5:30 p.m.

For up-to-date information on this game and other TU Athletics, visit http://www.TUNightHawks.com. Stay up-to-date with news, scores, photos, game summaries, play-by-play, and feature stories of your TU women's basketball team by following them via Twitter at @NightHawksWBKB.