Kayla Cabiness, senior, stripped the nets for 28 points Sunday afternoon as the Panthers rode a second-half wave of buckets to defeat Regent University 64-53 in Swartz Gym in a women’s basketball matchup.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing for the Panthers, however, who were ahead 11-7 at the end of one. Due to a second-quarter scoring drought, it was a little more than five minutes before the ladies scored another basket. Meanwhile, Regent scored 10 unanswered points.

By the time the Panthers scored again on a Cabiness three with 4:05 left in the second, Ferrum trailed by five–19-14.

A made technical foul free throw and another Cabiness three pointer brought the Panthers to within one with 3:33 remaining in the half at 19-18.

Another bucket from each team put the score at 21-20 Regent with 2:08 remaining in the second period, but Taryn Blankenship, sophomore, was fouled on a rebound and hit the front end of a one-and-one to knot the score at 21 with 1:36 left in the quarter.

The Panthers then turned the ball over, and Regent scored on a fast break with 1:03 remaining to go up two, but Ferrum tied the game on a Blankenship jumper with :24 left in the half to go into the break with the score even at 23.

A different Panther team showed up for the second half.

The ladies outscored Regent 21-12 in the third, allowing the Panthers to take a 44-35 lead into the 4th.

The fourth started with a Regent technical foul, and Cabiness sank both shots from the stripe to make it 46-35.

Trina Lewis, senior, got two of her 17 points on the day with a lay-up at the 7:45 mark to put the Panthers up 10, 48-38, and Allessandria Thomas, junior, knocked down a jumper with 7:12 left to make it 50-38 Ferrum.

Lewis also stole the ball at the 5:17 mark and took it the length of the floor for a layup and a 54-38 Panther lead.

Regent answered with a three with 5:02 to make it 54-41.

After the final media timeout of the afternoon, Cabiness took a rebound and fired a one-hand, left-handed shot that hung on the rim momentarily before dropping through to make it 56-41 with 3:11 left. Cabiness also hit the and-one to go up 57-41.

A regent basket and two Panther free throws added two points for each team, and Asya Williams, junior, scorched a three with 1:49 left to make it 62-45.

Erin Harden, sophomore,  canned two free throws with 1:34 on the clock to make it 64-45 Panthers.

A late, eight-point scoring spree by Regent closed the gap a little, but it wasn’t enough, as the Panthers hung on for the 64-53 win.

On the afternoon, the Panthers were 20-60 from the floor for a 33% average. From the three-point range, the ladies went 5-19 for 26.3%, and were 19-27 from the line for 70.4%. The Panthers also out rebounded the Royals 60-35, but it was the third quarter 9-20 shooting that put the ladies far in front.

Post-game, Head Coach Bryan Harvey said that before the game, he had talked to the team about playing up-tempo and fast.

“We felt like they kind of wanted to walk it up and slow it down,” he said. “But we wanted to play with pace, and I thought that first, half they controlled the pace, and we played at their tempo.”

Harvey said that the second half was a different story.

“The second half we picked up our intensity, and we were running the transition,” he said. “We were able to get some easy baskets, and I think that is what we needed.”

He said the team struggled against the half court defense, but he felt that the team got some good points out of the transition play.

“(At halftime) we just talked about playing at our pace and trying to control the tempo and playing in the style we wanted to play versus letting them dictate the style and tempo,” Harvey said.

The win puts the Panthers at 3-1 for the season, 1-0 in the ODAC.

Harvey’s team will be back in action Sun., Nov. 26 at Virginia Wesleyan at 2 p.m.