SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. -- The Mount Holyoke College basketball team took a 12-5 lead after one quarter of its non-conference game against Anna Maria College on Wednesday night, before the visiting Amcats took over the lead for good in the second quarter en route to a 60-39 win in front of a large and loud home crowd supporting the Lyons in Mildred S. Howard Gymnasium.
Junior Katie Rha (Douglaston, N.Y.) had a team-high eight rebounds and tied first-year Emma Goff (Cohasset, Mass.) for Mount Holyoke's team scoring lead with eight points. Goff also contributed seven rebounds and three assists, and sophomore Taryn White (Alexandria, Va.) posted seven points, six rebounds and two assists off the bench.
Marinique Reddin led all players with 27 points and 14 rebounds for Anna Maria (4-5), to go with four steals, two blocks and two assists. Madison Paulhus scored 10 points, Gina Parmenter filled the stat sheet with nine points, six assists and four steals, and Arianna Gonzalez had six of the Amcats' 19 steals in the game.
Mount Holyoke senior Teal Howle (Florence, S.C.) made two 3-pointers in the first quarter, single-handedly outscoring the Amcats in the period, as Anna Maria was held to 2-16 shooting (.125) from the field by Mount Holyoke. The Lyons ended the period with a 7-0 run over the final four minutes, including a jumper by Rha, a putback by sophomore Kendall Maurer (Orinda, Calif.), and a three by Howle with an assist by Rha.
Goff hit a pair of free throws early in the second quarter to extend the Lyons' lead to 14-5. Mount Holyoke led 18-11 with 6:48 to go in the half after a layup by Rha, before an 8-0 run by Anna Maria gave the Amcats a 19-18 lead, their first since the score was 2-0. Sophomore Libby Harris (Foxborough, Mass.) canned a three to return the lead to the Lyons briefly, but back-to-back baskets by Reddin put Anna Maria in the lead for good at 23-21 with 3:16 left in the half.
Carrying a 28-25 lead into the second half, Anna Maria scored the first seven points of the third quarter while holding the Lyons scoreless until a layup by White with 5:07 left in the period closed the gap to 35-27. Baskets by Gonzalez and Parmenter were followed by a three-point play by Reddin in the Amcats' important run. Mount Holyoke scored the next two hoops to cut it to 35-29, but Paulhus and Sarah O'Connor hit back-to-back threes sandwiching a Lyons miss to suddenly assume a 41-29 lead with 1:55 left in the period. Paulhus added a pair of free throws to make it 44-30 heading into the final quarter.
Anna Maria then opened up the game with a 12-0 run to start the fourth quarter, putting the game essentially out of reach at 56-30. Reddin scored six points in the run and Ariana Saladini added four.
Mount Holyoke earned the rebounding advantage for the eighth consecutive game, by a 47-33 margin.
The Lyons will travel to Connecticut College for a non-conference game on Saturday at noon; the Amcats will host Norwich in a GNAC game Saturday at 1pm.
