Danville, VA - With the Christmas and New Year holidays in the rear view mirror, the Hollins basketball team was back in action with a trip to Averett University on Saturday afternoon.  It was the first game of the new year for a Hollins team looking to get back on track after a heartbreaking loss to Salem almost four weeks ago.

The home standing Cougars scored the games first six points and led for a majority of the opening quarter.  After a Jewellanna Parfitt (Roanoke, VA) three pointer, Hollins took her first lead of the matchup, 11-9.  Another hoop by the road team made it 13-9 but Averett rattled off six straight points over the next two and a half minutes to take a two point advantage in the second 10 minutes of play.  Hollins quickly ties the score but another Cougar run pushed the lead to six, forcing their guests to take a timeout.  After the break in the action the two teams played the final eight minutes of the half to a virtual tie allowing Averett to take a seven point lead into the break.

The second half saw the home team shoot over 50%, never letting Hollins to get back into the game.  As the final horn sounded, Hollins came up on the short end of a 76-56 score, sending their overall record to 3-6 for the season while Averret evened it's mark to 4-4.

Parfitt recorded 15 points and 10 rebounds, her fifth double-double of the season.  The junior also added four of Hollins nine steals.  First-year Nikki Valencia (Pearland, TX) joined Parfitt in double figures with 14 points, four rebounds, and five steals.  Sally Sroge (Louisville, CO) netted nine points with senior Auburn Smith (Las Vegas, NV) scoring seven.

Samm Chandler paced Averett when she registered game highs in points (21) and rebounds (12).  Ariana Covington added 15 points with DaQuila Washington coming off the bench to score 10.

Hollins will be back in Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) action on Wednesday night when they travel to face Emory & Henry College.  The Wasps are currently sitting atop the conference standings with an 8-1 overall mark, including a perfect 2-0 record in the ODAC.