MONTEVALLO, Ala. | The Young Harris College women's basketball team used a strong second quarter performance to easily defeat the University of Montevallo 75-58 in a Peach Belt Conference contest Wednesday (Jan. 18) evening at Trustmark Arena.

The win snapped a three-game losing streak by the Mountain Lions as they improved to 7-8 overall and to 3-5 in the Peach Belt, while the Falcons fell to 4-12 and 1-8. After playing three road games over the past five days, the Mountain Lions are now off until next Wednesday (Jan. 25) when they host Georgia College in a 5:30 p.m. PBC affair at the YHC Basketball Arena.

After Sarah Reid's putback at the buzzer tied the game at 18 at the end of the first quarter, the Mountain Lions took control of the game with a 9-1 run to start the second quarter. Briana Bell, who scored all of her 17 points in the first half, started the rally with one of her five three-pointers. Young Harris opened up a 27-19 lead on an old-fashioned three-point play by Jenny Vernet with 7:16 remaining. After the Falcons cut the lead to six, the Mountain Lions closed out the half on a 15-2 run, including the final nine points of the half to take a 42-23 lead into the locker room.

The Mountain Lions limited the Falcons to just 10 percent shooting (1-of-10) in the decisive second quarter, while hitting 58.8 percent (10-of-17) of their shots.

Young Harris used an 11-0 run over the final minutes of the third quarter and the start of the fourth to take its largest lead - 30 points (67-37) - on a Jada Williams jumper with 7:28 to play.

Young Harris finished the game by hitting 52.7 percent (29-of-55) of its shots and held a commanding 42-25 advantage on the glass.

"It was a great team win first of all," said YHC head coach Matt Stearsman. "We made shots, shared the ball, defended like crazy the first three quarters. I was very happy with them. Happy for Briana, Meghan, and Mere especially. They struggled to make shots Monday and they came out and knocked some down early and got in a rhythm. Also, Dyiesha and Sara Jorgensen and Sarah Reid  continue to get better and it's exciting."

Meredith Tarver led the Mountain Lions with 22 points and 14 rebounds, while Reid pumped in 10 points. Vernet finished with nine points and eight rebounds. Sara Jorgensen and Meghan McQuade each added six points, with Jorgensen dished out nine assists.

Albanellys Perez led the Falcons with 16 points and Morgan Smith tossed in 11 more.