SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. -- The Mount Holyoke College basketball team outscored visiting Lesley University 12-4 over the final five and a half minutes of the fourth quarter, pulling away from a 46-46 tie to defeat the Lynx 58-50 in a non-conference game Tuesday night in Mildred S. Howard Gymnasium.
Mount Holyoke (2-11) enjoyed a balanced effort in the win, tying for its highest point total of the season with only one player, sophomore Libby Harris (Foxborough, Mass.), scoring in double figures with 12 points.
Senior Teal Howle (Florence, S.C.) and sophomore Taryn White (Alexandria, Va.) scored nine points apiece, with Howle contributing six rebounds and four assists and White adding 10 rebounds, three assists and two steals. Sophomore Kendall Maurer (Orinda, Calif.) grabbed a game- and season-high 12 rebounds to go with six points from off the bench. First-year Hannah Goen (New London, N.H.) came up with her best game thus far, scoring eight points with three rebounds, two assists and a steal. Goen was on the floor for nearly the entire fourth quarter, when the Lyons pulled away to victory.
"Going into the fourth quarter, we knew the importance of team chemistry and connection," said Goen. "Games like that can get hectic quickly. At the moments we began to slip into doubt and frustration, it was vital that we came together, and we did."
Saniyyah Phillips led Lesley (0-11) with 16 points, 10 rebounds and three assists, while Alexandra Kerley added 14 points, 10 rebounds, five steals and two blocked shots.
Mount Holyoke outrebounded Lesley by a 51-39 margin and had a slight 14-13 advantage in turnovers. The Lyons' 20 offensive rebounds, their second most this season, led to a crucial 11-4 edge in second-chance points.
Mount Holyoke led 29-22 at halftime after outscoring Lesley 15-13 in the second quarter, despite the Lynx hitting 3-of-5 on three-pointers in the period, with one apiece from Phillips, Savannah Gravitt and Paige Stowers.
Lesley trailed 33-24 with 6:49 left in the third quarter before embarking on a 12-2 run to take its first lead since the first quarter, as Jordan Blair's layup made it 36-35 in the Lynx's favor. The teams traded the lead four times before the end of the quarter, and a pair of free throws by Hillary Berry tied it at 42-42 going into the final period.
With six minutes remaining in the game, Mount Holyoke junior Marley Berano (Lady Lake, Fla.) made a steal and dished a no-look pass to Maurer for a layup to tie the game for the last time at 46-46. Goen fed Howle for a fast-break layup and a 48-46 Lyons lead, and the Lynx called timeout with 4:18 to go. Howle then made a baseline jumper for a four-point Lyons cushion, but Mount Holyoke called timeout after an offensive putback by Phillips closed it to 50-48 with 2:03 left in the game.
Out of a Lyons timeout, Goen hit White for a layup and a three-point play, to make it 53-48 with under two minutes left to play. As the clock went under a minute to go with the Lyons ahead by four, Lesley began to foul, but Harris went 2-for-2 at the line on consecutive trips to ice the win for the Lyons.
Mount Holyoke travels to Boston on Thursday to face Wentworth Institute at 6pm, in the Lyons' last non-conference game.
