Box Score NEW ORLEANS, La.- The Belhaven women's basketball team suffered a 60-46 non-conference lost at Southern University-New Orleans on Friday afternoon. The setback dropped the Blazers to 6-6 on the season.

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The game started even as the Blazers matched the Knights basket for basket. Both teams looked poised for a close game throughout the first half. Belhaven held a five point lead at 11-6 with 13:12 left in the first half on a basket by Amber Smith. However, the Knights rallied late to grab a 30-27 halftime advantage.

"I thought we were in the game to start and prepared, but we fell off towards the end of the second half, said Belhaven Head Coach Rusty Cram. "Unfortunately, we weren't able to keep pace and came up just a bit short. We had some trouble down the stretch with turnovers and not being able to convert field goals hurt us."

Southern-New Orleans (4-2) briefly relinquished the lead after a 4-0 run by Belhaven to start the second half gave the Blazers a 31-30 edge. However, the Knights quickly recovered with a 5-0 run of their own and never looked back.

The Blazers were led by Senior Erika LeFlore's 16 points and eight rebounds. Freshman Ce-Ce Pittman followed with nine points and Junior TaShayla Steede's six points and eight rebounds helped keep Belhaven within striking distance.

"I thought Erika and TaShayla played well together, "said Cram. "They definitely fed off one another today."

The Blazers shot 40% from both the field (18-44) and the three-point arc (2-5). Both LeFlore and Pittman were one of two from long range.

Victoria Davis led SUNO with 15 points followed by Marquetta Stokes with 11 points. Brandy Broome had a game high 11 rebounds to go along with eight points. The Knights shot at a 33.8 clip from the field (23-68) and were 4 of 18 from three point range (22.2%). SUNO came into the contest averaging 82 points per game, but the Belhaven defense held them to 22 points below their season average.

The Blazers will host Rust College in Rugg arena on Monday. Tip 0ff is slated for 6:00 PM.

"We'll work on some things and fine tune some things and get ready for Rust on Monday," added Cram. "We'll look to finish off the first half of the season strong before going back into conference play after the Christmas break."