JACKSON, Miss. — Dominee Matthews scored 21 points and Jarryn Cleaves 15 Saturday to lead Xavier University of Louisiana to a 65-57 Gulf Coast Athletic Conference women's basketball victory against Belhaven.
     The Gold Nuggets (19-10, 11-5 GCAC) moved into a second-place tie with SUNO and Mobile. All three teams have two conference games remaining. Xavier snapped a four-game losing streak and clinched a home game Feb. 28 in the quarterfinals of the GCAC Tournament.
     Cleaves made three 3-pointers, the last with 14:47 remaining to give her a Xavier season record of 71. Courtney Simon (1987-88) held the previous record, 70. One week earlier, Mark Stewart broke the Xavier men's season record for 3-pointers.
     Xavier — which defeated Belhaven 63-62 Jan. 20 on Brittany Whitmore's 3-pointer at the buzzer — didn't need last-second heroics this time. The Nuggets led 35-28 at the break and never lost the lead in the second half.
     Lindsey Dukes scored 20 points for Belhaven (8-18, 4-12), which has lost 24 of its last 25 meetings against Xavier.
     The Nuggets outshot the Lady Blazers 42 to 35 percent from the floor. Both teams grabbed 39 rebounds, and Xavier's Erica Turnbull and Rynika Hebert each had seven rebounds.
     Xavier's next game will start at 5:30 p.m. Thursday in Hattiesburg, Miss., against GCAC opponent William Carey.
     Loyola clinched its first GCAC regular-season championship with an 83-72 victory at Mobile. Here's how the race for second place in the GCAC stands with two conference games remaining for each of the three teams:

                          Remaining Games
Team               W  L   Thursday                    Saturday
Xavier            11  5   at William Carey            at Dillard (Dent Hall)
Mobile            11  5   at Dillard (Alario Center)  at Spring Hill
SUNO              11  5   at Belhaven                 at LSU-Shreveport
 (SUNO also plays Philander Smith at home Monday in a non-conference game)