Once again, the Anderson women’s basketball team made it look easy.

In a semi-final matchup in the Conference Carolinas Basketball tournament on Thursday, the Lady Trojans finished the first half with a 16-2 run and outscored Belmont Abbey 37-20 in the second half to cruise to a 72-41 victory at the Abney Center.

The victory sets up a 4 p.m. home showdown with Mount Olive Saturday for the CCAA tourney title and automatic berth in the East Regional.

Mount Olive (19-10) topped Barton, 74-71, Thursday.

“I know I sound like a broken record, but the girls really turned it up a notch in the second half,” said Anderson boss Jeff Dow, whose No. 12-ranked squad improves to 27-2 on the season. “Really, the whole game we were really focused. There was one stretch in the first half where we seemed to stop scoring, but there again defense kept us in it. We’re not looking ahead — we’re just playing the game we’re playing — and I think it shows.”

Nikki Anthony had another tour de force performance, leading the team with 15 points and 14 rebounds. Incredibly, the grad student already had a double-double in the first half, with 10 points and 11 boards.

“What can you say about her?” Dow said. “She’s just a dominant force in there. And then when the other team keys in on her, it opens up our guard play.”

The first half saw the Lady Trojans pull ahead 15-5 early, then the Crusaders rallied with a 14-4 spurt and tied the game at 19-all with just over four minutes remaining in the stanza.

But Alexa Neal initiated a 13-0 run with a 3-pointer followed by a jumper, and after 20 minutes the Lady Trojans were comfortably in front, 32-21.

Belmont Abbey could never get any closer as Anderson opened up the final half by scoring 21 of the first 28 points, effectively ending this one with nine minutes still to play.

By the time the final horn had sounded Neal had finished with 14 points, followed by Mikala Fogle-Wilson (11) and Keana Boyd (10).

When Boyd hit a 3-pointer early in the contest, it put her over the 1,000-point mark in career scoring.

As usual Anderson dominated the boards, 41-34.

Mercedes King was the only double figure scorer for Belmont Abbey (19-10), tallying 16 points on the night.

Now Dow and his charges will try to complete their own double-double — a tourney title to go along with a regular season championship.

“We’re just glad we’re still playing,” Dow said. “We’ll go out there Saturday and try to win, then Sunday night we’ll watch the (selection show) and see what happens.”

The Lady Trojans, the third seed in the East Region, are expected to travel to Pennsylvania for regional action.