CHARLESTON, S.C. - It was the tale of two halves as the Charleston Southern women's basketball team over came a six-point halftime deficit to defeat visiting UNC Asheville, 88-70, Saturday afternoon at the Buc Dome.

CSU put five players in double figures and avenged an earlier loss to UNC Asheville. CSU improved to 13-8 overall and 6-4 in conference play while the Lady Bulldogs fall to 7-14, 3-7.

Prior to today's contest, the Buccaneers were tied with Campbell for third-place in the Big South. However, they are expected to move up in the standings as second-place Liberty defeated the Fighting Camels this afternoon.

"I am so proud of our second half defensive effort," said head coach Julie Goodenough. "There was good ball pressure by our guards and our posts finished possessions with rebounds. We had a well-balanced scoring effort across the board. It was awesome to see some of our freshmen like Abby (Wharton), Shannon (Sanders) and Shambreka (Jones) putting big-time minutes together. Today was just another great example of teamwork."

For the fourth straight game the Bucs were led by Rachelle Coward, who had a team-high 26 points and attempted a team-high 21 field goals. She was also near-perfect at the free-throw line, going 8-for-9 to help CSU to an 80.6 free-throw percentage on the day.

Anicia Dotson had 15 points while Jones recorded a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Guard Shay Jones returned to action following an injury, coming off the bench to score 12 points. She also led the team with four steals and was 4-for-4 at the line.

Erin Bratcher rounded out players in double figures, sinking three treys on her way to 11 points.

CSU shot 42.2 percent on the day and were able to out-rebound the Bulldogs, 43-41. CSU scored 23 points off turnovers while scoring 30 points in the paint.

Shonese Jones had 18 points for Asheville, who shot 37.3 percent from the field. Leah Wormack added in 17 points, while Tacey Trammell had 10.

A physical contest from the start, both teams were in the bonus midway through the first half. The two teams kept it a one-possession game for a good portion of the half until the Bulldogs pulled away with just under two minutes to go and took a nine-point lead on a three-pointer from Trammell.

Coward hit the free-throw line with a second left in the half to whittle the CSU deficit down to six as Asheville took the 45-39 lead at half time.

However, the Buccaneers came out of the locker room on a mission, going on a 17-4 run in a four-minute span to take an 11-point advantage with 12:22 to play. Another 12-0 run soon after put the CSU lead at 21 and the Bucs never looked back.

Charleston Southern will host Gardner-Webb on Monday night at the Buc Dome. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.