BUIES CREEK, N.C. - Leading by 13 with just over eight minutes remaining, Campbell put away Pfeiffer with an 18-1 run for an 89-61 victory in its season opener inside Gore Arena/John W. Pope Jr. Convocation Center on Friday evening.
Senior guard Kiera Gaines (Mechanicsville, Va.) tied for the lead among all scorers with 18 points and added four assists and a team-high seven rebounds.
Redshirt junior guard RaeChaun Edwards (Spring Grove, Va.) also added 18 points and tied for a game-high six assists, and sophomore forward Amanda Coffer (Summerfield, N.C.) completed the Campbell trio in double figures with 10 points.
The Lady Camels held a 48-34 advantage on the boards and pulled down 16 offensive rebounds. Campbell also shot 34-of-66 (52 percent) from the field while holding the Falcons to just 23-of-61 shooting (38 percent).
Meg Pritchard led Pfeiffer with 17 points and led all players with eight rebounds, and Carter Williams pitched in 14 with three shots from beyond the arc.
The bench accounted for 31 of Campbell's points, led by seven from senior forward Juli Osborne (Kingsport, Tenn.). The Lady Camels' inside game produced more than half of the team's points, scoring 54 inside the paint compared to only 20 for Pfeiffer.
Pfeiffer opened the game with a 6-0 run over the first minute, spurred by a pair of layups by Pritchard and another from Alexis Stallard. Following an early timeout, the Lady Camels snapped the streak with their first points of the night on a basket by sophomore forward Qua Brown (Hampton, Va.) at the 18:44 mark.
Despite falling behind early, Campbell rallied with nine unanswered points of its own over the next four minutes. Coffer led the Lady Camels with four points during the run, with senior guard Summer Leverette (Turkey, N.C.) adding a layup and Gaines hitting Campbell's first three-pointer of the season also contributing to the streak that gave the Lady Camels their first lead of the night, 9-8, with 15:38 left in the half.
Campbell would not relinquish the lead for the rest of the half. A three-point play by Pfeiffer's Carlisha Holivay at 11:56 cut the Lady Camels' advantage to two, 15-13, but two quick baskets from Edwards and Gaines rebuilt a six-point lead for Campbell.
Holding a 21-18 lead with just over nine minutes remaining in the first half, Campbell broke open the contest with a 15-3 run over the next three and a half minutes. Osborne led the Camels with five points during the run, and both freshman guard MaKala Rouse (Greensboro, N.C.) and junior guard Jessica Pone (High Point, N.C.) pitched in four apiece to build a double-digit lead, 36-21, with 5:39 on the clock.
A three-pointer from Pritchard cut Campbell's lead to 12 at the 2:44 mark, but the Lady Camels closed out the half with five unanswered points to take a 49-32 lead into the halftime break.
Coming out of the locker room, the Lady Camels stretched their lead to 25 with an 11-2 run over the first five minutes of the second half. Edwards spurred the run with seven points, including her first shot from beyond the arc in 2014, as Campbell took a 60-35 lead over Pfeiffer.
Four three-pointers by the Falcons over the next four minutes cut Campbell's advantage to just 12, 64-52, with 11 minutes remaining. Williams drained three of the shots from beyond the arc to lead the 17-4 run for Pfeiffer.
The Falcons would come no closer as Campbell went on an 18-1 run spanning seven minutes late in the half to seal the victory. Gaines, Edwards and freshman guard Summer Price (Beaverdam, Va.) chipped in five points during the run that left the Lady Camels with a 30-point lead, 87-57, with 2:50 to play.
Campbell will be back in action on Monday at 7 p.m. as the Lady Camels host N.C. Central inside Gore Arena/John W. Pope Jr. Convocation Center.
