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AUGUSTA, Ga. - Trailing by 16 points with under three minutes remaining in the third quarter, the Columbus State University women's basketball team pulled another exhilarating comeback to defeat second-seeded Lander 86-83 Saturday. The Peach Belt Conference semifinal game took place at Christenberry Fieldhouse in Augusta, Ga.

Taya Gibson followed up her career night with another monster performance down low setting a new career high with 24 points while pulling in 13 rebounds. LeeAysia Williamson and Tatiana Wayne added in 16 and 15 points respectively while Tatum Jarvis notched a double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds. 

"Well the good thing about the postseason is that everyone is 0-0 so we don't worry about seeding," said head coach Anita Howard. "Lander is an excellent team but we're confident in our ability to compete with any team on the court. Although we would prefer not to be down by 16 late, we knew we were just in this same scenario days ago and that if we played our brand of ball we could pull the comeback.

Lander grabbed their largest lead of the game at 67-51 with 2:45 remaining in the third quarter but that's when CSU started to chip away at the lead. Back-to-back layups from Aryan Dozier and Kristian Carter cut the deficit to 12. The Lady Cougar defense then forced two straight turnovers and after scoring on both the Bearcat lead was cut to eight with under a minute to play in the third. Columbus State would tack on three more free throws giving them an 11-0 run to end the third quarter as they trailed 67-62 heading to the fourth.

After a Lander jumper to start the fourth, the Lady Cougars responded hitting two three-pointers from Wayne with a Jarvis layup in between that brought CSU all the way to within two points. Columbus State would grab their first lead since the opening minute of the second half on a Jarvis three pointer with 6:03 remaining, putting them ahead 76-73. 

The two teams would then trade the lead back and forth before entering the final minute of play all knotted up at 81-apiece. After a Lady Cougar turnover it was Lander who took the lead on a layup plus the foul to go in front 83-81 with :40 seconds left. However, the Bearcats would miss the free throw which would prove to be costly as Columbus State came down the court and saw Gibson put-back a miss while getting fouled. The freshman would hit the clutch free throw giving CSU the one point lead with :30 seconds remaining. 

As it has time and time again, it was the Columbus State defense that came through one more time. The Lady Cougars forced a traveling on the Bearcats giving them the ball back with :12 seconds left. Kaihla Carter would hit two free throws forcing Lander to have to hit a three to tie in the final seconds. A miss by the Bearcats at the buzzer would send the Lady Cougars into a mid-court celebration as they advanced to the Peach Belt Conference Tournament championship game. 

The win by CSU avenged the loss last season in the PBC semifinals when Lander took down Columbus State 91-83. The Lady Cougars will be back in the PBC title game where they last appeared two seasons ago when they made their fourth consecutive trip. 

Columbus State shot 42.9 percent (33-for-77) from the field while hitting 7-of-21 from behind the arc. 

The Lady Cougars will take on top-seeded North Georgia on Sunday, March 10^th in the championship game. Tipoff is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.