Cincinnati, Ohio – On Saturday January 7th, Mount St. Joseph's Women's basketball team played host to the Manchester Spartans. Coming into the matchup, the Lions sat one game back of the Spartans in the HCAC conference standings. The Lions were able to take a solid second half performance and earn a 82-58 victory.
In the opening quarter of play, the Lions would jump out of the gates quickly, Karlee Mills took the opening tip for a layup followed by a pair of free throws on the next possession. Carlee Daulton quickly connected on a three-point jump shot to bring the lead to 7-0 as the Spartans called a timeout with 8 minutes remaining. The timeout would not cool off Freshman Karlee Mills as she scored the next 3 possessions with a couple of driving layups and a three pointer for the top of the arc. As Manchester brought the game back to eight points, Mills once again knocked down a three to grow the lead back to double digits. As the quarter would come to a close, Manchester trimmed the lead down to 8 with a minute to go. In the final possession of the quarter, Ellie Oldendick would find Madison Drummonds for a layup. The Lions would take a 24-18 lead into the second.
The second quarter was a slower start offensively for the Lions. Manchester opened the quarter on an 8-0 before Chloe Jansen found the bottom of the net to tie the game up at 26. With the lead trading back and forth, Mills and Anyiah Murphy would take control of the game and add the next 7 points to bring the lead to 5 in favor of the Mount. In the final minute of play, Drummonds would knock down 1 of 2 from the line and Mills turned a steal into 2 points on the other end to give her 21 points in the first half. The Lions lead remained at 6 by the score of 41-35.
In the second half the Lions defense would ramp up as they held the Spartans to only 14 points and 35% shootings while forcing 7 steals. As for offense, Carlee Daulton and Sienna Slaughter quickly sparked the Lions with 2 layups each to bring the lead to 10 with six minutes remaining. The solid run for the Mount would continue as Ellie Oldendick knocked down her first triple of the game and Anyiah Murphy earned a layup off of a Chloe Jansen steal. Jansen would assist on the play for her 5th of the game. With the quarter coming to a close, Freshman Morgan Jenkins earned her first two points of the game with a pull-up jump shot. Murphy would add the final basket of the quarter and the Mount lead would sit at 61-49 heading into the final quarter
As the final quarter began, the dominant defense continued to shine. The lions also used their height advantage in the paint as Emily Elliott got the offense rolling. That basket was the Lions 46th point scored in the paint on the night. As the quarter continued, a couple of three pointers for fall, as well as steals that led to layups on the other end brought the lead up to 24. With a minute to play, Julia Gooding would put the nail in the coffin with a pair of free throws as the Mount earned a 82-58 victory over the Spartans.
The Lions were led by Freshman Karlee Mills. Mills provided 25 points, while adding 4 steals and shooting 50% from behind the three point line. Anyiah Murphy added 10 points and Madison Drummonds had a respectable 9 points, 8 rebound performance.
Up next:
The Lions next matchup is on January 11th as they play host to number 3 ranked Transylvania at 7:30pm in the Harrington Center.
