Lions' women's basketball team suffers 53-43 home setback to Rose-Hulman

Visting Rose-Hulman made all 14 of its free throws in the game, and held the Lions to under 34 percent shooting, as they rolled to a 53-43 win on Saturday afternoon in the Harrington Center. The Mount, 3-10 overall, 2-4 in the HCAC, will be back in action on Jan. 9 when they play at conference-rival Franklin College.

Neither team shot well in the first half of the Mount-Rose game, as the Fightin' Engineers took a 24-21 lead into the locker room at the half. Rose-Hulman out-scored the Lions 12-2 in points in the paint in the first half, as they jumped out to an 18-13 lead just 10 minutes into the game.

The Fightin' Engineers would widen that margin to a 41-30 advantage by 11:18 of the second half, and would hold a double-digit lead until 5:48 to play in the game, as the Mount's Brooke Mosler (Maysville, KY/St. Patrick's) cut the gap with a basket. Despite an improving inside presence on offense, the Lions would get no closer down the stretch as they dropped their fourth straight game.

Melanie Monahan (Mason, OH/Bishop Fenwick) led the Lions with 10 points while teammate Rachel Blevins (Middletown, OH/Madison) chipped in eight points and five rebounds. Chelsea Castleberry (Hebron, Ky/Conner) added five assists. Rose-Hulman out-shot the Lions, 46 to 33 percent from the field, and held the Mount to one-for-11 from behind the three-point arc. Rose-Hulman committed 26 turnovers while the Lions had 18 turnovers. The Mount was six-of-15 from the free throw line.