Women’s Basketball loses to Pfeiffer, 75-68

MARS HILL, N.C. - In the second matchup between Mars Hill and Pfeiffer in 10 days, the Falcons won the rematch, 75-68, on Tuesday inside Stanford Arena.

Pfeiffer (3-3) hit three of their first five three-point attempts in the game with two coming from Kaela Bellefeuil. With the game tied at 14, the Falcons went on a 11-2 run in the span of 6:22. Christina Harvey scored the final four points of the spurt to give her team its largest lead of the first half, 25-16, at the 7:19 point in the first period.

Mars Hill (3-2) answered by outscoring Pfeiffer 12-6 over the next 5:42. An Ansley Ricker free throw, one of her 11 first-half points, cut the deficit to three points, 31-28, with 1:37 left in the first half. A layup by Tyler Carlson with 15 seconds remaining tied the game at 33 at halftime.

Mars Hill's Armeka Booker had 11 first-half points. Bellefeuil led Pfeiffer with eight, including two made three-pointers. Harvey had seven points at intermission.

Both teams struggled to find the bottom of the net during the first 10 minutes of the second half. An old-fashioned three-point play by Pfeiffer's Jodie Lemons gave her team a 36-35 advantage two minutes into the second half. A bucket in the paint by Mars Hill's Autumn Ward gave the Lions a 39-36 advantage, but a trey by Brittney Cox on the next possession down the court tied the game.

The Falcons took a 12-point upper hand, 51-39, with 11:13 left in the game off five straight points by Cox. Cox scored seven straight points for her team at one point. An old-fashioned three-point play by Ricker cut the deficit to single-digits, 51-42, with a little over 10 minutes remaining in the contest.

Trailing 58-44, Mars Hill went on a 8-0 run. Ward hit two treys to highlight the spurt, the last one coming at the 6:30 mark in the second half to make the score 58-52. A layup by Danielle Tucker with 4:21 left in the game cut the deficit to 61-56 in favor of the visitors.

An old-fashioned trey by Ricker with 1:02 left cut the deficit to 67-61. A 25-foot three by Ricker on the Lions' next possession made the score 68-64 with 49.5 seconds remaining, but Mars Hill would get no closer.

Cox scored 17 of her team-high 20 points in the second half. Brittney Washington followed up with 12 points and 14 rebounds.

Ricker scored a season-high 24 points. Tucker had 12. Booker tallied a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Ward finished with eight points.

Pfeiffer shot 22-of-62 (35.5%) from the field. Mars Hill was 26-of-65 (40%) from the field. The difference in the game was at the foul line where the Falcons converted 22 from the charity stripe compared to only 10 for the Lions.

Mars Hill will travel to Lenoir-Rhyne to open South Atlantic Conference action on Wednesday, Nov. 30. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m.