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FLORENCE, S.C. - The Columbus State University women's basketball team dropped a tight fought battle on the road as Francis Marion escaped with a 74-73 win over the Lady Cougars.

Senior Tatiana Wayne led all scorers with 19 points to go along with seven rebounds and Naomi Holloway added in 15 off the bench for CSU who fell to 8-6 (5-5) on the season.

"It was good to see our team get off to the start that we've been looking for lately," said head coach Anita Howard "We knew they were going to be tough to close out in the second half and unfortunately our defense wasn't able to come up with the stops that we needed to pull out the win."

The game went back and forth down the stretch as the two teams traded key buckets. Columbus State took a two-point advantage with 2:32 remaining after Wayne hit a corner three. Francis Marion responded scoring six straight points to go up four with just over one minute to play. But CSU immediately came back as Kaihla Carter hit a layup and was fouled to cut the deficit in half. 

Wayne then came up with a huge steal and layup to tie the game at 70 apiece with only 44 seconds left on the clock. FMU answered yet again with a layup of their own and after going 1-for-2 at the line they took a three-point lead with 21 seconds to go. CSU turned the ball over on the ensuing inbounds but was given life once again after two missed free throws. Unfortunately a three pointer to tie from LeeAysia Williamson was off the mark allowing the Patriots to seal their victory at the free throw line. 

It was a great first half for CSU as they got started off on the right foot opening up a double-digit lead on the road. Wayne came alive in the first quarter and Holloway hit two threes early on to give the Lady Cougars the start they were looking for. They finished the half on a 13-6 run in the final minutes to go into the halftime break up 11.

As a team CSU shot 40.3 percent (27-for-67) from the floor and 29 percent (5-for-17) from three.

Columbus State will remain on the road  to finish their three-game road trip as they'll head to Milledgeville, Ga. to take on Georgia College this Wednesday. Tipoff is scheduled for 5:30 pm.