Nuggets clinch school-record 9th straight winning season
February 4, 2010

Box score

     MOBILE, Ala. — Brittany Powell scored 13 of her 19 points in the second half Thursday to lead NAIA No. 23 Xavier University of Louisiana to a 65-46 Gulf Coast Athletic Conference women's basketball victory over Spring Hill.
     The victory was the 10th in a row for the Gold (17-5 overall, 10-0 GCAC), who clinched a school-record ninth consecutive winning season. The winning streak is Xavier's longest since the 2004-05 season, and the 10-0 conference start is the Nuggets' first since 2002-03.
     Jasmine Grant added 11 points, all in the final 7:13 of the first half, for Xavier.
     Jackie Higgenbotham scored 16 points and Kristin Rogers 12 for Spring Hill (2-18, 0-10), which has lost 10 straight.
     Higgenbothtam made three 3-pointers in a row over four minutes to give the Lady Badgers their biggest lead, 13-9 at 9:19 of the first half. But Grant answered with three in a row from behind the arc, and Xavier outscored Spring Hill 21-8 the remainder of the half to take a 30-21 lead at the break.
     Christina Warren's 3-pointer at 16:23 capped a 9-1 Nuggets burst to open the second half, and Xavier led by at least 15 points the rest of the way.
     Powell was 6-of-7 from the floor in the second half and scored seven straight points to make it 46-29 at 11:39. Powell's basket at 8:05 gave the Nuggets their largest lead, 54-33.
     Xavier outshot the Lady Badgers 46 to 40 percent from the floor and outrebounded them 33-28. The Nuggets committed 13 turnovers and gained 21.
     Xavier has posted a winning record in 17 of the last 18 seasons, including 10 of 11 during Bo Browder's tenure as head coach. Browder used 11 players against Spring Hill, and all of them scored.
     The top four teams in the GCAC won Thursday, so Xavier maintained its two-game lead over LSU-Shreveport and three-game lead over William Carey and three-time defending regular-season champion Loyola. The Nuggets will play LSUS at 5 p.m. Saturday at The Barn in a WBCA Pink Zone Game for breast cancer awareness.