Women's Basketball Falls at Catawba

SALISBURY, N.C. – Mars Hill's women's basketball team lost to SAC foe Catawba College, 70-63, Saturday afternoon in Goodman Gym. The Catawba Indians improve to 3-1 overall and 2-0 in the SAC, while the Lions fall to 1-3 overall and 0-2 in the league.

Mars Hill was led by Ansley Ricker, who posted a game-high 21 points.  Kelsey Espinosa and Hannah Hayes each put in a dozen points.  Genice Lane had nine points and the same number of rebounds.

Catawba got a good balanced effort as Chloe Bully and Emma Ucinski each had 14 points to lead the Lady Indians.  Antoinette McPhail followed with 11 points and added seven rebounds.

The Lady Indians began to pull away midway through the first half.  Leading 18-16, Catawba scored six straight points and went on to stretch the margin to 34-21 with 4:27 to go in the half.  Catawba took a double-digit margin to the break, leading 39-28. 

Catawba enjoyed its largest margin midway through the second half after a layup by Ucinski made it 58-40 with 10:29 left.  Mars Hill began to whittle away at the lead in the final 10 minutes.  Free throws by Hayes and Espinosa pulled the Lions within 63-54 with 6:23 to go.

A jumper by Espinosa cut it to 64-56 with 4:27 left.  Despite holding Catawba without a point for three minutes, the Lions could get no closer as Mars Hill had turnovers on seven straight possessions.  The Lady Indians did enough at the line in the final minute, making 4-of-8 attempts.

Mars Hill shot 46.5% for the game and was hot in the final half, making 12-of-18 (67%).  The Lions also held a 37-32 edge on the boards, but suffered 31 turnovers to just 15 for Catawba.  The Lady Indians finished the game shooting 39% after hitting 42% in the first half.

The Lions will host SAC rival Carson-Newman University on Tuesday, November 26. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m.