BUIES CREEK, N.C.- The Gardner-Webb women's basketball team (7-10, 3-5 BSC) erased a 17 point halftime deficit, but a last second shot by the Runnin' Bulldogs came up short as Campbell (10-6, 5-2 BSC) pulled out the victory 75-74 in a Big South Conference women's basketball matchup on Tuesday morning.
Olivia Parker scored a game-high 22 points and hauled down 14 rebounds for her second straight double-double and Alexus Hill scored a career-high 18 points to pace the GWU offense.
Candace Brown stuffed the stat sheet for the Runnin' Bulldogs scoring 16 points , grabbing seven rebounds, dishing out four assists, blocking two shots, and adding three steals, while Jessica Heilig also scored in double-figures for GWU adding 11 points and hauling down six boards, all on the offensive end.
Summer Leverette led the way for Campbell scoring 19 points and hitting all three of her shots from behind the three-point arc.
The Runnin' Bulldogs outrebounded the Lady Camels on the afternoon 46-30 including 26-14 advantage in second chance points, but Campbell got great production from its bench outscoring GWU's reserves 24-5.
Gardner-Webb used its physical presence inside to get back in the game totaling 26 offensive rebounds resulting in 34 attempts from the free-throw line compared to just 11 offensive rebounds for Campbell and 23 free-throw attempts.
Gardner-Webb got off to a great start for the fourth straight game as Heilig scored a three to open up the scoring for either team.
Gaines gave a great pass to Coffer who hit the open three as Campbell responded with an 8-2 run to take an 8-5 lead with 16:58 remaining in the first half.
Coming out of the under 16 media timeout, Alexus Hill hit 1-2 free-throws and Dunovant hit a jumper to give the Runnin' Bulldogs a 10-8 with 15:43 remaining in the opening period.
Summer Price hit both free-throws to tie the game at 10 for the Lady Camels, before Campbell would run off 12 straight points and hold GWU scoreless over the next four minutes to take a 22-10 lead with 11:05 left in the first half.
Campbell would put on a great defensive performance over the last 10 minutes of the first half holding GWU to 2-20 from the field as the Lady Camels would take their largest lead of the first half, 17 points (38-21) into the halftime intermission.
Coming out of the halftime break, Parker scored a layup and hit the ensuing free-throw to convert the three-point play, which was followed by a Brown free-throw and a jumper from Hill as the Runnin' Bulldogs opened the second half on a 6-0 run to cut the defecit to 11 (38-27) with 18:12 remaining.
Summer Leverette scored a layup with 14:17 left to push the Camels advantage back up to 16 (50-34), but the Runnin' Bulldogs responded with a 12-5 run which was capped by a Parker three pointer to cut the deficit the single digits, 57-48 with just over 10 minutes remaining.
The Runnin' Bulldogs continued to chip away at the Campbell lead cutting the deficit to just one (67-66) as Parker scored her 14th point of the second half on a layup with 5:13 to go.
After a missed shot by Edwards, Gardner-Webb had a chance to win the game with under five seconds left, but a last second shot from just across the halfcourt line fell just short, and Campbell would hold on for the 75-74 victory.
Gardner-Webb returns to Paul Porter Arena for its next game on Saturday when it hosts UNC Asheville at 3:00 p.m.
