DAHLONEGA – The No. 10 University of North Georgia (UNG) women's basketball team rolled to its biggest conference win of the season as it took down USC Beaufort (USCB) 91-54 at Lynn Cottrell Arena at the UNG Convocation Center on Saturday.

The first-place Nighthawks rose to 21-2 (11-2 Peach Belt) on the season. With one less game played than second-place Columbus State (which will be made up on Monday in a rescheduled contest at Georgia Southwestern), UNG is ahead of the Cougars and in prime position to clinch its 10th regular season conference title in the Buffie Burson era.

Graduate forward Emily Trushel changed lives on Saturday with a career-high 33 points against the Sand Sharks. The Brentwood, Tenn. native dropped the new career-high on 14 shots in just 25 minutes played.

Trushel went 10-for-14 from the floor and 6-for-9 from three-point range as she tied career-highs for made field goals and triples in a game. She accounted for 60 percent of her team's three-pointers in the game while also going 7-for-7 at the free throw line.

The performance was Trushel's first 30-point game of her career and her fourth 20-plus-point game this season. She scored 13 of the team's first 20 points to open the game. The outing also marked a career milestone for Trushel as she surpassed 1,500 career points with the best scoring performance of her career.

UNG's second-leading scorer did more than just that on Saturday as she added five rebounds, three assists, one block and three steals in the 37-point win. 

Trushel was not the only Nighthawk with a highlight performance on Saturday as two others reached double figures and five players in total scored seven or more points.

Graduate guard Caroline Martin dropped 19 points with five rebounds and three assists while shooting 6-for-9 from the floor. Martin started the 99th game of her career Saturay as well. That number is the fifth-most starts in the NCAA Division II era (2005). Martin passed current assistant coach Amber Skidgel who stared 98 games for the Nighthawks from 2016-2019.

Sophomore forward Kendall Emener recorded her eight double-digit game of the season with 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting.

Off the bench, sophomore forward Ava McGlockton tied a season-high with eight points while snagging five boards as well. The Cumming, Ga. native was everywhere defensively with a career-high three blocks and two steals on Saturday as well.

Senior combo guard Dasha Cannon also had seven points off the bench as she went 2-for-4 from the floor and 3-for-3 at the charity stripe.

Senior guard Ansley Hall was the lead distributor with eight assists in UNG's second-best scoring performance of the season. For a whopping 12th time this season, the floor general dished out four or more assists in a game. Hall's 102 total assists at a rate of 4.4 per game rank second in the conference this year.

On the glass it was junior guard Jaleah Storr leading the way for the Nighthawks Saturday. She snared eight rebounds to mark her third game this year with eight or more boards. Storr added five points as three of her collections came on the offensive end.

Saturday's result was essentially never in doubt against USCB. UNG held the Sand Sharks to 13 or fewer points in each of the first three quarters. The Nighthawks held USCB to a 13-for-43 (30.3 percent) mark from the floor in the first three quarters.

At one point in the fourth quarter, UNG led by a whopping 43 points. The 37-point victory replaced a 26-point win over Lander as the largest conference win this season. That win over the Bearcats came just three days prior in a Wednesday road game in Greenwood, S.C. 

The Nighthawks out-scored their opponents 170-107 this past week. On offense they went 62-for-118 (52.5 percent) from the floor and 17-for-44 (38.6 percent) from deep. Defensively they recorded seven steals and 23 blocks to hold their opponents to 44-of-115 (38.3 percent) shooting from the floor.

Now UNG will head to Americus, Ga. for a rare Monday road matchup against Georgia Southwestern. The game is a makeup after the original meeting with the Hurricanes was postponed due to a winter storm. Tip off on Monday, Feb. 17 is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.