Mt. Berry, Ga. - Berry's women's basketball team defeated Hendrix, 54-46, in a Southern Athletic Association matchup Sunday afternoon at the Cage Center. Sarah Wright led the Vikings with 13 points off the bench, while Kennedy Moore pulled down 10 rebounds.

"We found a group of players that wanted to defend," said Berry head coach Thomas Johnson.  "We've gotten to the point where we've had some success offensively and some of our players lost the work ethic on defense that we got on a winning streak with. Today, we just had to keep going down the bench until we found people that wanted to defend."

Trailing 26-22 early in the third quarter, four different Vikings combined offensively to help BC to a 10-0 run and a 32-26 advantage. Delaney Noe and Kristin Hunt combined for 10 of Berry's 17 points in the period as the Vikings led by six heading the final period, 39-33.

Moore's early fourth quarter lay-up gave the Vikings their largest lead of the contest at 41-33, but Hendrix would come back to cut the lead to three, 43-30. That would be the closest the Warriors (7-13, 1-8 SAA) would get as Wright and Hunt combined for the next seven Berry points to stretch the lead back to six and the Vikings would not lead by less than four the rest of the way.

"Defense is always our number one priority to start practice," said Wright. "Our shots weren't falling early in the game, so it was important to keep the energy up on the defensive end. Hendrix really pressured the bal a lot. I felt like we came out a little flat and Hendrix had a lot of energy."

"Hendrix played hard," Coach Johnson said. "We always play Hendrix close. Today, we had some kids that didn't want to come out and defend their kids, so once we figured that out midway through the second quarter, we played a lot better."

Berry was held scoreless for the first six minutes of the game as Hendrix built a 7-0 lead. Raven Washington finally ended the drought with a lay-up, then Wright sunk back-to-back three-pointers to make it 11-8 after one quarter in favor of the guests. Hendrix would stretch the lead up to nine, 19-10, early in the second quarter, but free-throws by Jada Wood, a three-pointer by Wright, and four straight points by McKenna Lentych tied the game up and capped a 9-0 run. Hendrix would rally back to take a 24-22 lead into the locker room at halftime.

Hunt scored all 10 of her points in the second half, joining Wright in double-figures in scoring. Hendrix would out-rebound Berry 45-35 in the contest, with Caroline Wendt and Maddie Pardeck grabbing 10 each.

Berry will be back in action at Centre this Friday at 6 p.m.