MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. | Sydney Cleveland and Ta'Asia Wright combined for 37 points and 21 rebounds as Georgia College held off Young Harris College 76-64 in a Peach Belt Conference women's basketball game Wednesday (Jan. 24) evening at the Centennial Center.

The Bobcats improved to 11-7 overall and to 8-4 in the Peach Belt, while the Mountain Lions slipped to 7-12 and 4-8. Young Harris returns to action Saturday (Jan. 27) at 1:30 p.m. when they host the University of South Carolina-Aiken in its annual homecoming game at the YHC Basketball Arena.

The lead seesawed back and forth between the two teams in the first half as there were nine ties and 10 lead changes. Young Harris led 19-18 after the first quarter as Sarah Garner scored seven of her nine points. Ge'Naisha Robinson added five more in the opening 10 minutes. The two teams combined to score five points in the opening 5:30 of the second quarter as Georgia College took a 33-31 halftime lead.

Young Harris tied the game at 37 after Ashlyn Ellison hit two free throws with 7:09 left in the third quarter before Georgia College took control, scoring 11 unanswered points to open up a 48-37 lead after Shav Tarver hit a free throw with 2:39 to go. Georgia College, which outscored YHC 24-10 in the period, extended its lead to 57-41 on a jumper by Kenvatta Storms right before the end of the quarter.

"Give Georgia College a lot of credit," said YHC head coach Matt Stearsman. "They imposed their pace of play on us tonight and we weren't aggressive enough offensively. We came out flat and we were still only down two at the half. The third quarter killed us. We had been avoiding that. But sometimes when you win a couple, you lose focus and I felt like that was our issue tonight. We weren't as sharp defensively as we have been."

Georgia College took its largest lead - 21 points (64-43) - with 7:57 remaining, but the Mountain Lions used seven consecutive points to close within nine points (71-62) on an Eryn Cochran layup with 55.1 seconds to go. 

Cleveland finished with 19 points and nine rebounds for the Bobcats, while Wright tallied a double double with 18 points and 12 rebounds. Tarver finished with 11 points and Storms contributed 10 more.

Robinson led the Mountain Lions with a career-high 21 points and added six rebounds. Cochran added 12 points and five steals, while Sarah Reid tallied 10 points. Ellison finished with nine points.