Buoyed by big contributions from a freshman and a senior, the Shorter women opened the postseason with a victory on Tuesday night in Lakeland, Fla.

Now, the Lady Hawks are halfway to a tournament title.

Freshman Madison Rice scored a career-high 13 points off the bench and senior Shelby Farrer hauled in 14 rebounds to help the top-seeded Lady Hawks down Southeastern University, 53-49, in the semifinals of the NCCAA South Region tournament.

It was the first action of the tourney for the Lady Hawks, who were awarded a first-round bye with their No. 1 seed.

Shorter now advances to today’s finals, where the Lady Hawks will face No. 2-seeded Emmanuel College — the defending South Region champions — at 6 p.m.

In Tuesday’s win, Rice scored eight points in the final 5:09, including a pair of shots from behind the arc.

Farrer, a former Model standout, finished with eight points, as did fellow senior Chelsi Matthews.

Lindsey Crawford got her third consecutive start and added eight rebounds for the Lady Hawks, who edged the Lady Fire on the boards with a 43-41 advantage.

Boykin scored seven points, including a pair of 3-pointers, while dishing out four assists and picking up three steals.

Southeastern opened the game on an 11-2 run before Shorter ran off seven consecutive points from Chelsi Matthews, Madison Rice, and a 3-pointer from Karisma Boykin.

The Lady Hawks (16-11) opened up a lead with back-to-back 3-pointers from Maggie Peeples, establishing the 20-14 lead with 5:21 to play. Matthews connected on a jumper with less than a minute left in the half giving Shorter the 26-24 lead at the intermission.

Nadia Givens tied the game right after the second half commenced, before 3:44 of scoreless basketball – Givens ended that streak with a 3-pointer with 16:03 to play. Givens scored 11 of her game-high 18 points in the second half, but was held scoreless over the final 6:38 as the Lady Hawks were able to expand a two-point lead to as much as much as six points.

The Fire got 13 points from Abbi Wiki off the bench to be the only other player to reach double digits in points.

Both teams shot 31 percent from the floor, with Shorter holding the slight edge from behind the arc – 28 percent to 25 percent.

The Lady Hawks capitalized on points in the paint, where they scored 24 points in the game, while claiming a 31-14 advantage in scoring from the bench.