ANDERSON, S.C. - The Anderson University women's basketball team followed up its second consecutive South Atlantic Conference regular season championship with a victory in the SAC Tournament quarterfinals on Wednesday, knocking off No. 8 seed Lenoir-Rhyne, 64-48, at the Abney Athletic Center.

The No. 25 Trojans - No. 5 in the Southeast Region poll - improve to 21-5 overall and advance to the semifinals on Saturday at Timmons Arena on the campus of Furman University. AU will take on Lincoln Memorial with tipoff slated for noon in Greenville.

The Bears close out their season at 12-15, 11-12.

"They're one of the hottest teams in the league," Anderson head coach Jimmy Garrity said. "They had won six out of eight coming in and they were playing to extend their season. They've done a great job."

Alexis Dillard led the charge for the victors with 16 points and eight rebounds, while Jennifer Monroe had 13 points and six boards and Heather Jankowy contributed 12 points.

Nakia Young had a solid night with nine points, Madison Floyd chipped in eight, and Bailey Sims, Katie Davis and Jasmine Raynor scored two points apiece.

"This game - and we've talked about it in the locker room and on the court - this is like a whole new season," Dillard said. "So when we start we have to start hot, on fire, and hit 'em with the first punch. We have to come out with our A game because they'll have their A-plus game."

Shelly Harper had 15 points for Lenoir-Rhyne and Jasmine Stafford closed out double-figure Bears with 10.

In two regular season meetings between these schools Anderson won one in a nail-biter (57-54 on Jan. 9) and the second by a rout (61-44 on Feb. 20). This time Garrity's charges split the difference for much of the contest, never quite pulling completely away from Katie Pate's team until late.

"Really proud of our kids," Garrity said. "Our defensive effort was great. In the first half they were getting us on the drive and getting it inside a little too easy. In the second half we were in gap help and played much better on defense. They're a team that really likes to drive the ball so we wanted to stop that first and we made shots when we had to."

Leading 32-23 to start the third quarter Anderson got ahead by as many as 17 before L-R tried to claw back into contention, getting the deficit down to 10 until a Jankowy trey made it 47-34 with 10 minutes remaining.

The fourth quarter, though, was owned by the Black and Gold, whose cushion got as fat as 20 points as they forced 19 turnovers along the way.

L-R used an 8-0 spurt to take a first quarter lead, ending the segment with a 16-14 edge.

The tourney's top-seed did a good portion of its damage from the free throw line, scoring half its points via foul shots.

In the second quarter, however, Anderson began to break down the Bear defense and found the range from inside and outside, outscoring the visitors 18-7 in the frame and taking a 32-23 lead into the locker room.

Dillard already had 12 points and seven boards to lead the Trojans at intermission, while Harper had eight points for Lenoir-Rhyne.

As for Saturday, Dillard said she and her teammates are already focusing on LMU, which advanced by beating Mars Hill, 75-72, on Wednesday.

The Trojans topped the Railsplitters twice during the regular season, winning both games by five points.

"We know with the post they have three or four big girls we'll have to deal with - big bodies - and they have good guards," she said. "We have to be ready for them mentally and physically."