GREENWOOD, S.C. – The No. 10 University of North Georgia (UNG) women's basketball team improved to 20-2 (10-2 Peach Belt) on the season with a wire-to-wire 79-53 win at Lander (10-9, 5-7 Peach Belt) Wednesday night.

The 26-point victory is UNG's second-largest of the season and biggest against a conference opponent this year. At 20-2 on the year, the Nighthawks are also now 8-0 on the road this season. UNG has an average margin of victory of 13.4 points in road games this season.

The Nighthawks have had Lander's number this season. In the two regular season matchups between the two teams, UNG has an average margin of victory of 20.5 points, it's third highest in a single season over the Bearcats in program history. 

After a dominating win at home in the first matchup of the season, the Nighthawks rode that momentum on the road to another great start against Lander on Wednesday. They raced out to a 17-point lead after out-scoring the Bearcats 25-8 in the first quarter and never looked back.

The scoring barrage continued in the second quarter as UNG built its largest lead of the game up until that point at 27 points in the second quarter. The Nighthawks would take a 43-19 lead into the locker room at halftime.

In the third quarter, UNG added insult to injury when it started finally knocking down some three-pointers on offense. After going just 2-for-12 from deep in the first half, the Nighthawks lit up the defense by going 5-for-8 from downtown in the third quarter alone. UNG went 10-for-16 from the floor in total in the third quarter and led by 36 points at one point, its largest lead of the game.

Lander did some window dressing in the fourth quarter to get the deficit back under 30 points, but the 26-point loss is tied for its largest of the season. 

UNG was highlighted by four different scorers in double figures against the Bearcats. Graduate guard Caroline Martin led the way with 15 points while adding six rebounds and four assists. Fellow graduate Emily Trushel posted 14 points with five boards and three assists.

Martin and Trushel have consistently been UNG's one-two scoring punch this season and that was no different Wednesday as they combined for 29 points on 12-of-19 (63.2 percent) shooting from the floor with a 4-for-9 (44.4 percent) mark from deep range.

Freshman guard Averie Jones and senior guard Ansley Hall also reached double figures as they each dropped 10 points. Jones also added two assists and a steal while Hall led the Nighthawks in distribution with six assists in the game.

Sophomore forward Kendall Emener led UNG in collection as she snagged a game-high eight rebounds to go along with her four points in the win. 

All 11 Nighthawks who saw the floor on Wednesday scored in the contest. 10 of those 11 players scored four or more points.

Senior combo guard Dasha Cannon dropped a season-high eight points on 3-of-5 shooting with four boards as well. Senior guard Carly Fahey dropped five points which included a three-pointer. Junior guard Jaleah Storr contributed off the bench in more ways than one with four points, three rebounds, two assists and three steals. Senior guard Livi Blackstock knocked down a three-pointer as she had four points off the bench as well while sophomore forward Ava McGlockton scored two buckets for four points with a pair of rebounds as well. 

Now UNG gets ready to celebrate Homecoming on Saturday, Feb. 14 with a 1:30 p.m. game at Lynn Cottrell Arena at the UNG Convocation Center against USC Beaufort.