SPARTANBURG, S.C. — The Belmont Abbey women's basketball team is heading to the conference championship game for the second straight season after the No. 3 seed Crusaders defeated No. 2 seed Francis Marion 54-40 Saturday evening in the semifinals of the Atlantic Casualty Insurance Conference Carolinas Women's Basketball Tournament from Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium.
 
The win sets up a rematch with top-seed UNC Pembroke at 4 p.m. Sunday for the Conference Carolinas Championship with the winner receiving the automatic bid to the NCAA Division II Tournament.
 
Abigail Crain finished with a game-high 10 points to go with four rebounds and four assists. Peyton Nation added 14 points while Catherine Hendershott added 12 to lead the Crusaders' scoring effort.
 
Belmont Abbey is now 23-7 on the season. Francis Marion is now 20-8 on the year.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• Hendershott and Crain accounted for the first seven Crusader points of the evening.
• Crain scored 13 of her 19 points in the first half.
• The Crusaders led by as many as 15 points in the first half after Riley James made a 3-pointer with 1:36 remaining in the first half.
• Nation scored the first four points of the third quarter for Belmont Abbey to send the lead back to 14 points.
• Francis Marion went on a 10-0 run in the period and Belmont Abbey went 6:41 in game time without scoring.
• Despite that, Belmont Abbey scored the final six points of the quarter to get the lead back to 10 entering the final quarter.
• Hendershott made a 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter to get the lead back to 13 but the Patriots rallied to make it a 42-40 game with five minutes to go in the contest with the Abbey still leading.
• One of the defensive plays of the game came late in the fourth quarter when Cate Schieber blocked a potential go-ahead 3-pointer from Francis Marion.
• The Crusaders went down on the other end of the floor and converted as Nation made a layup with just over four minutes to go to spark a 12-0 run to end the game.
• Belmont Abbey and Francis Marion each had 40 rebounds. Janiah Shular had a team-best 10 rebounds.
• The Crusaders finished with eight steals and forced 16 Francis Marion turnovers.

 
UP NEXT

• Belmont Abbey will face UNC Pembroke at 4 p.m. Sunday for the Conference Carolinas Championship.
• The Crusaders defeated the Braves 37-36 in Belmont back on Jan. 13 during the team's only meeting during the regular season.

POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE