CHARLOTTE, NC – CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS BOX SCORE In a tale of two halves, the Saint Augustine's University Lady Falcons battled back to defeat Chowan University 67-63 in the first round of the 2012-13 CIAA Tournament on Tuesday morning at the Time Warner Cable Arena.

The Lady Falcons, the No. 4 seed from the Southern Division, trailed 36-29 at halftime before outscoring the Hawks, the fifth seed from the Northern Division, 38-27 in the second half to advance to the second half where they will play the North's No. 1 seed Elizabeth City State on Wednesday afternoon.

“One of the major adjustments that we've not done all year long is play five guards,” said Saint Augustine's head coach Rachel Bullard. “And they stepped up to the plate. At this point, you have to put it all out there. Whatever's going to work, you've got to roll with it and that's what we did. We tweaked a couple of things that we do defensively. We stayed within ourselves, though. We just mixed up our defenses a whole bunch more.”

The Hawks, who finish the season with a 5-21 overall record, outshot the Lady Falcons and won the rebounding battle as well. Chowan shot 27-of-62 from the floor for a 43.5 percent rate while Saint Augustine's shot 23-of-56 for 41.1 percent. The Hawks snagged down 44 rebounds compared to 38 for the Lady Falcons.

The Lady Falcons forced Chowan to turn the ball over 19 times in the contest, which they turned into 22 points.

“We didn't really take advantage of the opportunities we had,” said Chowan head coach Patrick Mashuda. “In the first half, we had a seven point lead and I felt like we could have stretched that out more. In the second half, they took advantage of our miscues. The game came down to points off turnovers. 22-12 is an awful lot to overcome even for a team that's as scrappy as we are and plays the style that we play.”  

Saint Augustine's was led by senior Autumn Smith-Faulkner, who finished with a game-high 21 points and six rebounds. She was named the game's Most Valuable Player for her performance. Porscha Walton finished with 17 points and seven boards and Lakiya Rouse contributed nine points to help the Lady Falcons improve to 12-14 overall.
Chowan was led by Talaya Lynch and Janelle Murphy, who each finished with 17 points in the loss. Danielle Coleman added 13 points on 6-of-7 shooting to go along with seven rebounds to contribute for the Hawks.  

At the 15:33 mark of the first half, Saint Augustine's held a 10-9 lead thanks to a three-pointer from Regime McCombs. The Hawks responded with a 10-0 run over the next 5:23 to build a 19-10 lead.

A three-pointer from Smith-Faulkner fueled a 9-2 run for the Lady Falcons, who pulled within two at 21-19 with 8:16 remaining in the first period.

Lynch buried a three-pointer to push the Hawks to a five-point lead (24-19) with 7:00 left.

A pair of free throws from Walton brought the Lady Falcons within three. At the 4:49 mark of the period, Rouse sank 1-of-2 free throws to make it a two point contest.

Coleman converted a layup to give the Hawks a 26-22 lead, which was immediately answered with a layup from Rouse on the other end.

Coleman made another layup to extend Chowan's lead back to four at 28-24 with 3:42 remaining in the first half.
Walton drained a three-pointer from the right wing to bring Saint Augustine's within one at 28-27 at the 2:50 mark of the period.

That would be as close as the Lady Falcons would get the rest of the period as Chowan closed out the first half on an 8-2 run to take a 36-29 halftime lead.

Saint Augustine's, using their smaller five-guard lineup, opened the first six minutes of the second half on a 14-7 run to even things up at 43. With 14:03 remaining in the contest, Jeanne-Marie Wilson hit a layup in traffic for two of her seven points, which tied the game up.

 Murphy buried a jumper from the top of the key to give the Hawks the lead back, the Lady Falcons responded with five straight points to regain the lead. A three-pointer from Smith-Faulkner gave Saint Augustine's its first lead since the 15:33 mark of the first half.

Another deep jumper from Walton pushed Saint Augustine's to a 48-45 lead with 11:16 left to play.

After Lynch converted a layup in traffic to cut the Hawks' deficit to one, Saint Augustine's extended its lead back to two when Rouse buried one of her two free throw attempts to make the score 49-47 with 9:17 remaining in the contest.
A layup from Chowan's Cortnee Springs evened things up at 49 with 8:45 left. Twenty seconds later, Wilson converted a layup to give the Lady Falcons the 51-49 edge.

A free throw from Springs and a jumper from Naima Harrington gave Chowan the lead back. With 7:38 remaining in the contest, Chowan held a 52-51 advantage.

Saint Augustine's answered with an 8-0 run over the next three minutes to regain the lead. Walton buried a jumper to give the Lady Falcons a 59-52 lead with 4:22 remaining.

Chowan responded immediately with a 6-0 run on back-to-back three's from Springs and Lynch to pull within one at 59-58.

Walton scored four straight points to give Saint Augustine's a 63-58 lead with 1:30 left. Twenty-three seconds later, Murphy buried a three-pointer from the left corner to make it a two-point contest (63-61).

Wilson pushed the SAU lead to five when she sank three of her next four free throw attempts with 19 seconds remaining. Smith-Faulkner buried a free throw with 11 ticks left to give the Lady Falcons a 67-61 lead.

The Hawks scored their final points of the contest when Coleman made a layup with one second remaining.

The Lady Falcons will play again at 1:00pm on Wednesday against the Lady Vikings, who had a first-round bye after winning the Northern Division.