LORETTO, Pa. – The Saint Francis women's basketball team (12-8, 10-4 NEC) fell to Mount St. Mary's (15-4, 14-2 NEC) by a 56-43 margin inside DeGol Arena on Monday evening.
Katie Dettwiller tallied a career-high six blocks but a Mount St. Mary's run to end the third quarter put the game out of reach for Saint Francis.
Saint Francis 43, Mount St. Mary's 56
Records: Saint Francis (12-8, 10-4 NEC), Mount St. Mary's (15-4, 14-2 NEC)
Location: DeGol Arena (Loretto, Pa.)
KEY MOMENTS
After the Red Flash cut the Mountaineers' lead to one, 31-30, with four minutes to play in the third quarter, Mount St. Mary's finished the quarter on a 9-2 run.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The first quarter featured five lead changes as the Mountaineers held a 15-13 lead after 10 minutes of play.
Karson Swogger led the SFU offense with nine points in the opening quarter as the Red Flash outshot and outrebounded the Mountaineers. Dettwiller recorded three blocks through the first 10 minutes.
The Mountaineers opened the second quarter on a 9-2 run to lead 24-15 with just under four minutes to play in the first half – MSM's largest lead of the first half.
The Red Flash ended the quarter on an 8-2 run to trim the Mountaineers' lead to three going into the locker room.
Haley Thomas stole the ball with 13 seconds on the clock and Swogger fed it through traffic to
Jada Dapaa for the layup as the clock ran out. SFU trailed by a 26-23 margin at halftime.
Saint Francis trimmed the Mount St. Mary's lead down to as little as one during the third quarter, trailing 31-30 with 4:08 to play in the quarter. The Mountaineers' finished the quarter on a 9-2 run, including seven free throws, to take a 40-32 lead into the final quarter of play.
MSM outscored SFU 16-11 in the fourth quarter, going on to win 56-43.
STATS
The Red Flash shot 62.5 percent in the second quarter, its best shooting quarter of the game. Each team had 18 rebounds in the first half. Mount St. Mary's led the game in shooting from the floor (35.4 percent to 33.3 percent), but Saint Francis won the rebounding battle, 36-32.
GAME NOTES
- Dettwiller totaled at least three blocks for the fourth-straight game and finished the game with a career-high six blocks.
- Swogger reached double figures for the 15th-straight game.
- Thomas reached double figures for the fourth time this season.
THOUGHTS
- Head Coach Keila Whittington: "It was a disappointment for us that we couldn't make it more of a game today but right now we need to find the positives in the effort that we had and holding [Mount St. Mary's] to 56 points. Fighting to the end is what's most important right now. We want to make sure we continue to fight because there's still a lot of season left."
- Senior Karson Swogger: "Coming into the locker room right after the game everybody said, 'You know we still have games to play and there are bigger games coming up.' We need to keep that in mind and stay focused and positive."
- Senior Haley Thomas: "We're excited because we want to have one last game on this home court. I know Karson, Jenna and I definitely do as seniors so we're going to fight for it and we're going to make sure our teammates are right along with us. We're fighting for these last two games at CCSU and hopefully we play well-composed, execute our offense, play great defense and that will carry over into the NEC Tournament."
UP NEXT
The Red Flash wraps up the regular season with a series at Central Connecticut later this week. Tip-off on Thursday and Friday is scheduled for 4 p.m. Both games will be broadcast live on NEC Front Row.
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To learn more about Saint Francis University, visit
francis.edu.
