Women’s Basketball defeats Wingate, 83-69

MARS HILL, N.C. - Mars Hill hit 11 three-pointers en route to an 83-69 victory over Wingate inside Stanford Arena. The Lions improve to 11-3 overall, 4-2 in the South Atlantic Conference, while the Bulldogs fall to 8-6 overall, 3-3 in the SAC.

Brittini Young led the Mars Hill attack with 22 points and was 3-of-4 from behind the arc and 9-of-10 from the foul line. Margaret Harvey had 16 points. Taylor Deal recorded her fourth double-double of the season with 16 points and a game-high 13 rebounds.

Kurie Washington led Wingate with 18 points. Janitsha Williams added 16 points, while Simone Rutledge contributed 11 points and nine rebounds.

The Lions held the upper hand for the entire game. Mars Hill claimed its first double-digit advantage, 26-14, off a trey by Harvey with 7:28 left in the first half. Two free throws by Deal gave Mars Hill its largest lead of the game, 35-17, with two made free throws at the 2:02 mark of the first period, and the Lions were up 36-23 at halftime.

The Bulldogs used a 10-3 run early in the second half to cut the Mars Hill lead to six points at the 16:49 mark on a layup from Williams. A Sarah Wollett triple at the 13:45 mark made it a one-point game, but Wingate would get no closer. A layup from Narcissa Grayson with 9:18 remaining in the game put the Lions back on top by six points.

Mars Hill would knock down five three-pointers in the next three minutes, taking a 74-67 lead on a three-pointer from Young with 4:34 remaining. A layup from Deal with over a minute left gave the Lions a 13-point advantage. The Bulldogs would get no closer than 12 the rest of the way.

Mars Hill shot 44 percent from beyond the arc (11-of-25). Wingate shot 35.5 percent from the field (22-of-62), while hitting 6-of-17 from three-point range (35.3 percent). The Lions held a 50-43 rebounding advantage, scoring 15 second-chance points.

Mars Hill will host Carson-Newman on Wednesday, January 19. Tipoff from Stanford Arena is set for 6 p.m. ET.