Lakewood, N.J. - In front of a bleacher-busting crowd, thanks to Georgian Court University's annual National Girls & Women in Sports Day, the Lions gave the fans plenty to celebrate as GCU registered its ninth Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) victory of the season with a 68-58 defeat of visiting Nyack College.

The win, Georgian Court's fifth over its last six contests, improves the squad to 9-4 in conference play (9-13), the program's best CACC record since going 9-9 a decade ago in 2008-09. The Warriors, with the loss, drop to 3-19 (1-2 CACC).

After squeaking out a one-point lead after the initial 10 minutes of play (15-14), the Lions pounced in the second period by outscoring their foe, 19-8, to escape into intermission ahead, 34-22. Thanks to a 19-16 surplus in the third, Nyack lowered its deficit to single digits,trailing by nine heading into the fourth-and-final session.

GCU would push its lead to 14 after a Carna Prokic fast-break lay-up made the score 56-42 with 7:03 to go in regulation. The Warriors continued to battle as the road team mounted an 8-0 run to slice to the Lions' lead to 56-50 with 3:52 left. 

That would be as close Georgian Court would permit Nyack to climb as the Lions geared up for a 12-8 spurt to close the contest.

Safiyyah Lee led the victors in the scoring column with 17 points, to go along with eight boards, three steals and a pair of helpers. Jada Atchison added 13 points, including a trio of three-pointers, to go along with five assists.

Ivona Krakic enjoyed a career day as the freshman registered 12 points, eight boards, six blocks, four assists and two steals. Prokic, not to be outdone, contributed 11 points, nine rebounds six steals and five assists. Destiny Thompson, who was honored before the game for eclipsing the career 1,000-point plateau two weeks ago vs. Bloomfield, collected five board sand four points in her 18 minutes of action.

Elle Nittinger (Fr.-Waverly, N.Y.) paced the Warriors with a double-double consisting of 17 points and 10 rebounds in the setback.

The Lions take to the road for its next contest this Wednesday with a CACC South Division showdown at Wilmington University (6:00 p.m.) GCU looks to redeem itself after falling to the Wildcats back on Jan. 2, 84-81, in the Wellness Center Arena.