Mount women's basketball drops HCAC game at Earlham College, 79-73

Host Earlham College jumped out to a 16-point at the half, and had to fight off a Mount challenge in the second half today to secure a 79-73 win over the Lions. The Mount, 2-17 overall, 2-10 in the HCAC, will be back in action on Feb. 5 at Transylvania University.

The Lions led the Quakers in the early part of the game on Saturday, 9-5 before surrendering the advantage at 14:04, 12-10. Earlham held the Mount to 29 percent shooting in the first half, as they raced away with a 20-10 lead at at 11:47 mark. Taking advantage of numerous lay-ups and free throws, the stretched that lead to 42-26 at the intermission. The Quakers held a 27-17 advantage on the boards in the first half, and connected on 44 percent from the field. Heidi McManus (Bethel, OH/Williamsburg) led the Mount with eight, first half points while teammate Brooke Mosler (Maysville, KY/St. Patrick's) chipped in seven points.

The Mount got back into the game in a big way at the start of the second half, rolling off a 14-0 scoring spree down to the 16:11 mark to cut the deficit to 42-38. The Lions were paced by a balanced scoring attack, as Tara Dennis (Batavia, OH/Williamsburg), McManus and Mosler led the way offensively. Dennis hit a shot with 14:01 on the clock to cut the Earlham lead to 44-42, but the Quakers got things together offensively, jumping out to a 55-43 with just over 10 minutes to play. Dennis connected on another shot with 2:28 to play, putting her team down by one point, leading the way to a game-tying three-pointer (70-all) by Meredith Hartfiel (Villa Hills, KY/Dixie Heights) with 2:07 remaining. That would be the last points, however, the Lions would score until Hartfiel hit another trey with five seconds left for the Mount's final points. Earlham converted nine-of-10 free throws in the final 1:46 of the game to clinch the win, and sweep the season series between the two teams (2-0).

Dennis finished with 25 points, 11 rebounds and three blocked shots while Mosler added 15 points. McManus chipped in 12 points and seven rebounds while teammate Bristyl Webb (Oxford, OH/Talawanda) grabbed nine rebounds. The Mount hit 20-of-28 free throws in the game, while Earlham was 24-of-34 from the charity stripe in the game. The Lions committed 24 turnovers and forced 19 Earlham turnovers.