(Savannah, GA)- The Shaw women's basketball team took advantage of poor shooting by #25 Francis Marion and downed the Patriots 67-65 in a game hosted by Shaw at A.B. Beach High School in Savannah, GA.

With the win, Shaw improves its season mark to 3-1, while FMU drops to 3-2.

While the Lady Bears struggled at the free throw line all evening, hitting only ten of 26 attempts, the Patriots struggled from the field, taking 64 shots, but hitting only 22 for a 34.4 percentage.

While the game was close throughout, it was not necessarily pretty with a combined 51 turnovers (28 for Shaw and 23 for FMU).

Shaw built an early lead, reaching as high as seven points when Brittney Spencer hit a jumper with 11:22 left in the first half to give the Lady Bears a 15-8 lead. FMU never allowed the Lady Bears to get any further ahead than that, and with 6:52 left in the first half, Courtney Mealing's jumper in the lane gave the Patriots a two-point lead.

The two teams fought evenly for the rest of the game. The Lady Bears went into the locker room at the half with a three-point lead, but with 14:55 left in the game, Robin Colbert's free throws gave the Patriots their largest lead – five points – in the game.

The Lady Bears built a small lead of their own, culminating when Janelle Harrison hit a layup on the fast break, was fouled and converted a free throw for a three-point play which gave Shaw 59-54 lead.

With 2:40 left in the game, Kyria Buford hit a layup to give Shaw a 65-59 lead, but the Patriots fought back, tying the score at 65 with 1:12 left in the game. Neither team scored a field goal after that point, but Victoria Tanner made two free throws that proved to be the difference.

Buford led the Lady Bears with 18 points while Janelle Harrison had 14 and Aslea Williams had 13. Buford led Shaw with eight rebounds and Harrison had seven assists to pace the Lady Bears.

For the Patriots, Shannon Singleton-Bates had 21 points while Mealing had 16 and led the Patriots with nine rebounds.

The Lady Bears return home on December 7 for the Vivian Sansom Tipoff when they will face Queens College at C. C. Spaulding Gymnasium. Game time is 6:00 p.m.