GREENWOOD, S.C. - Leading wire-to-wire, the No. 16 University of North Georgia women's basketball team sealed their spot in the Peach Belt Conference Tournament championship game with an 87-65 win over Clayton State Saturday night at Lander's Finis Horne Arena.

The Nighthawks jumped out to a 10-0 run over the opening 3:46 of the game. Clayton State would cut the lead down to five points, but UNG expanded the lead to 13 before the end of the period. UNG went on another 9-0 run midway through the second half to stretch the lead out to 21 points before taking an 18-point cushion into halftime.

North Georgia kept the margin above 20 points for the majority of the second half, answering every surge that Clayton State tried to mount with a bigger surge en route to the semifinal win.

NOTES
- Julianne Sutton led UNG with 23 points on 8-of-10 shooting, including two three-pointers. Abbie Franklin and Imani Arnold each had 16 points.

- Kara Groover flirted with a triple-double, scoring eight points and seven assists to go with 10 boards.

- North Georgia was 32-for-54 from the floor and assisted on 23 of those made buckets.

- In the other semifinal, No. 23 Lander used a 31-10 third quarter to pull away from Columbus State in a 92-67 win.

NEXT UP
The Nighthawks and Bearcats will meet for the PBC Championship tomorrow afternoon at 4 p.m.