The Shorter women’s basketball team saw a solid second half comeback and a pair of 16-point performances by Karisma Boykin and Kristin Nash fall by the wayside on Saturday.

The Lady Hawks lost in overtime to Valdosta State, 70-65, in Gulf South Confer-ence action at the Wint-hrop-King Centre.

The loss dropped the Lady Hawks to 13-8 overall and 8-5 in the GSC heading into a pair of conference road games next week against Delta State on Thursday and Christian Brothers on Saturday.

Against Valdosta State, the Lady Hawks found themselves trailing 35-28 at the half.

Valdosta then opened the second half with back-to-back 3-pointers by Brooke Satterfield and Brittney Nelson that gave the Lady Blazers their biggest lead, 41-28.

Shorter slowly began to battle back thanks to a seven-point run by Nash.

The Lady Hawks made the most of the momentum change and with 6:38 remaining took the lead for the first time since the opening minutes of the game when Crawford canned another shot in the paint to give her team a 51-49 advantage.

Nelson led the way for Valdosta scoring a game-high 21 points, hitting five of eight treys in the game while the Lady Blazers finished hitting 10 of 20 shots from beyond the arc.

Williams added 14 points and Satterfield added 12.

Joining Boykin and Nash in double figures for the Lady Hawks, who ended the game connecting on just 37 percent of their shots and were hampered by 20 turnovers, was Alexander, who finished with 13 points, and Crawford, who had 10.

In other action Saturday:

GHC WOMEN 72, ANDREW COLLEGE 41

Georgia Highlands earned win No. 21 on the with a win against Andrew College.

The Lady Chargers took a 44-23 lead into the half and never looked back.

Seandree Lee scored 22 points, Manon Cherubini scored 14 points, and Shakierya McClendon scored 11 points.

The Lady Chargers next play Wednesday when they travel to Chattahoochee Tech at 5:30 p.m.

MEN’S BASKETBALL

VALDOSTA STATE 97, SHORTER 89

Despite a 30-point effort by Walter Hill and 24 points from Brandon Pullman, the Hawks were unable to overcome Valdosta State at the Winthrop-King Centre when the visiting Blazers claimed a Gulf South Conference win.

The loss snapped Shorter’s two-game conference winning streak and gives the Hawks a 14-7 overall record and an 8-5 GSC slate heading into a pair of Gulf South road tests next week at Delta State on Thursday and at Christian Brothers on Saturday.

After the two teams traded leads throughout most of the first half, the Blazers — Valdosta (10-10, 5-7) set the tone for the game hitting 55 percent of their shots from the floor — grabbed a 38-35 lead at the half.

The Hawks managed to cut the gap to two, 42-40, with 17:31 left to play when Hill converted a pair of free throws. That was as close as Shorter would get the rest of the way as Valdosta outscored Shorter 15-5 during the next three minutes.

Hill’s 30 points came from a 10-for-16 shooting night, including a 6-for-8 performance from beyond the three-point line, while Pullman scored 19 of his points in the second half and added eight rebounds. Dedric Ware added 19 points.

BASEBALL

SHORTER SWEPT AT HOME BY BARRY

The Hawks took to the field at the Ledbetter Complex for the first time this season, but their home-opening doubleheader didn’t go the way they’d hoped it would.

The Hawks were swept by Barry University, losing 7-2 in the opener and 1-0 in the nightcap of the twinbill.

Game 1 saw the visiting Buccaneers jump out to an early lead, and although Shorter’s relief corps pitched effectively, the Hawks could not overcome the early hole they dug for themselves.

The bullpen was highlighted by five scoreless innings of pitching between a trio of Shorter relievers.

Micah Thompson, David Summerall, and Brodie Orr combined to allow only two hits while holding the Bucs scoreless.

In Game 2, the Buccaneers were able to score late against a strong outing from Cameron Rich to win 1-0 in seven innings.

Each starting pitcher went the entire way, with Rich giving up only three hits and the one run while striking out six.

Calvin Rayburn held the Hawks to four hits while striking out eight to earn the victory.

The Hawks had a chance in the second inning with bases loaded and only one out, but Rayburn forced a double play to end the threat.

Rayburn then retired 10 of the next 12 batters to set the tone for the Bucs’ victory that completed the sweep.