SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. -- Mary Keohane led Fitchburg State with 22 points, 12 rebounds, four steals and three assists as the Falcons edged the Mount Holyoke College basketball team 62-53 in the Lyons' home opener on Wednesday night.
Fitchburg (2-2) led 15-12 after one period and boosted its advantage incrementally in each period thereafter. The Falcons shot 23-67 (.343) from the field and made 11 steals, leading to a 29-16 advantage in turnovers.
Mount Holyoke (0-5) got a season-high 20 points, eight rebounds, three steals and two assists from senior Alex Twomey (Nutley, N.J.), while juniors Sofia Francisco (Boston, Mass.) and Hannah Goen (New London, N.H.) added 10 points apiece. Francisco had a game-high 16 rebounds and four blocked shots.
Kaelynn Turner scored 12 points for Fitchburg and Shanell Smith-Akpan added 11, to go with three assists and four blocks.
The Lyons cut their deficit to four points at 43-39 with 35 seconds remaining in the third quarter, on a basket by Francisco assisted by first-year Erica Yokota (Tokyo, Japan.). Erin McNamara responded with a three for Fitchburg with 25 seconds left, and the Falcons took a 46-40 lead into the final period.
Keohane made back-to-back threes at the 9:10 and 8:42 marks of the fourth quarter, doubling Fitchburg's lead to 12 points at 52-40. Twomey responded with a jumper with 8:29 to go, but the score stayed at 52-42 for the next four minutes. Twomey made another jumper with 4:46 to go to make it 52-44, and her free throw with 3:34 to go made it a seven-point game at 52-45.
Mount Holyoke closed it to seven again with a 3-pointer by Goen with 1:08 to play, but time began to run out on the Lyons.
Twomey was fouled shooting a 3-pointer with 19 seconds remaining, and she drained all three free throws to close the gap to 58-53. Shanell Smith-Akpan helped ice the win for Fitchburg by draining a pair of free throws, then blocking a layup attempt with 10 seconds to go. Kaelynn Tanner made a layup at the buzzer for the final margin.
Fitchburg raised its all-time record against Mount Holyoke to 6-1.
Both teams return to action on Saturday, with Mount Holyoke visiting Regis at 1pm and Fitchburg hosting Colby-Sawyer at 12pm.
