DAHLONEGA – The No. 7 University of North Georgia (UNG) women's basketball team gutted out a 79-71 win against eighth-seeded Clayton State (CSU) in the quarterfinals of the 2025 Peach Belt Conference Women's Basketball Tournament at Lynn Cottrell Arena at the UNG Convocation Center Wednesday night. 

The win marks history for head coach Buffie Burson's program as the Nighthawks are now 27-2 through 29 games for the first time ever. 

The victory also secures home court advantage for UNG which will now serve as the host site for the PBC Tournament Semifinals (Saturday, March 8) and Championship (Sunday, March 9).

With the win, the Nighthawks advance to the conference semifinals for the seventh time in the last eight years. There they will take on fourth-seeded Georgia College which defeated fifth-seeded Flagler 82-73 Wednesday night. 

The upcoming matchup with the Bobcats serves as an opportunity for revenge for UNG. The Nighthawks last lost a game when GCSU defeated them 51-43 at home back on Feb. 5. Since then UNG has won nine straight games by an average of 19.1 points per game. 

Wednesday, however, was nowhere near a 19-point victory. The Lakers came to Dahlonega with an upset on their mind and gave the Nighthawks everything they could handle. 

CSU hung around the entire game, never allowing UNG to lead by more than eight points. 

In the first quarter, Nighthawk freshman guard Averie Jones drilled her second-consecutive three pointer to put her team ahead by seven points with 2:52 remaining. Yet the Lakers stuck around to trail just 23-19 after the first stanza.

CSU took its first lead of the game with five straight points to open the second quarter. The two teams then traded buckets as UNG led 35-33 with 2:14 remaining in the first half. From there, the Lakers went on an 11-2 run to take a five-point lead into the locker room at 42-37.

CSU led for much of the third quarter before a layup from Jones untied the contest to put the Nighthawks ahead 50-48 with 3:35 on the clock. UNG eventually led 60-56 heading into the fourth quarter.

The Lakers would still not go down without a fight. After graduate guard Caroline Martin knocked down a jumper to make it 64-60 UNG, CSU guard Jadah Waite drilled a step-back three pointer to pull within one. 

The turning point in the game came less than a minute later. After a turnover by the Lakers, Burson called a timeout. During the break, CSU guard Jasmyn Burts got into an exchange with fans behind the Laker bench. The officials reviewed footage of the exchange and assessed Burts a technical foul. 

UNG was awarded two free throws and the ball. Martin made both foul shots before sophomore forward Ava McGlockton made a layup to put the Nighthawks ahead by two possessions at 68-63. 

The Lakers would never cut the deficit to less than three points from that point on as UNG went 12-for-14 at the free throw line in the final 7:38 and held on for the 79-71 victory. 

Martin finished with a game-high 25 points as she went 8-for-17 from the floor and 7-for-8 at the charity stripe. She tied a career-high with five steals on defense as the Nighthawks scored 24 points off 24 CSU turnovers in the win.

Jones had another big night with 19 points, shooting 6-for-11 from the floor and 3-for-6 from deep range. The standout freshman crossed a milestone on Wednesday as her scoring output gave her 332 points in total this season. That's the most from a UNG freshman since at least 2010 as Jones surpassed current assistant coach Julianne Sutton who scored 318 points as a rookie back in 2018. 

Senior guard Ansley Hall was sensational in leading the Nighthawks past a stingy CSU defense Wednesday as well. She scored 10 points while grabbing a team-high seven rebounds and dishing out a team-high six assists. 

Despite the tough Laker defense all game, it was the UNG defense that came up big in the final quarter. The Nighthawks forced eight of CSU's 24 turnovers in the final frame while limiting the Lakers to just 35.3 percent shooting from the floor. 

Now UNG looks ahead to the PBC Semifinals and a showdown with GCSU. The matchup takes place at the UNG Convocation Center on Saturday, March 8 at 1 p.m. with the other semifinal matchup between seventh-seeded Lander and sixth-seeded Georgia Southwestern to follow.