ROCKY MOUNT, N.C. - A Career night for junior guard Cydney Nichols helped lead the NC Wesleyan women's basketball team to a 74-62 victory over visiting Averett (Va.) on Senior night.

Wesleyan brought out their pink uniforms to bring awareness to breast cancer on Play4Kay Night and to honor seniors Leah Wright and Vontasia Olds, but Nichols brought the goods on this night scoring a new career-high of 27 points on 5 of 8 shooting from the three-point line, which also tied her career high. She also added 7 rebounds with 2 assists and 2 steals on the night. Nichols shot 10 of 16 overall on the night.

Wesleyan improves to 18-5 on the season, their most wins since the 1998-99 team won 19 games. The women also clinched the #2 seed in the East Division with their 13-2 mark and also a first round bye in next week's conference tournament.

The Bishops got out to another strong start leading 14-3 and taking a 20-10 lead after one quarter. Averett would then cut into the lead some in the second quarter by taking it 19-15 to trail by just 6 at the break, 35-29.

Wesleyan then played solid defense in the third quarter holding the Cougars to just 11 points while extending their lead to 54-36 at one point in the quarter. Each team then traded buckets in the fourth scoring at least 20 points apiece as NCWC cruised the rest of the way en route to the 12 point win, their 4th straight and 9th in their last 10.

The women shot 38 percent for the game and about 35 percent from three while making 10 of 13 free throws. Averett shot just 33 percent and less than 16 percent from three.

Freshman forward Kayrisma Harrison also had a good game scoring 12 points with a team-best 9 rebounds, 2 steals, and an assist. Junior guard Kayla Johnson also scored 11 points while junior forward Myrayna Watkins added 6 points, 7 rebounds, and a steal. Junior point guard Keorra Taylor also led in assists with six along with 4 points and 3 rebounds.

The women are back in action on Saturday when they travel north to Mary Baldwin University (Va.) for their regular season finale at 2:00 PM.