Women's Basketball Drops Regular Season Finale to Lenoir-Rhyne

HICKORY, N.C. – The Mars Hill women's basketball team dropped the season finale to Lenoir-Rhyne on Saturday, February 27 inside Shuford Gymnasium. The Bears improve to 12-14 overall and 11-11 in the SAC with the 64-52 win, while the Lions drop to 15-12, 14-8.

Ansley Ricker led the offense with a team-high 16 points. Cadence Wilmoth chipped in 14 points and a pair of blocks with Paige Chavis dropping 10 points on the afternoon and a team-high eight boards. As a team the Lions shot only 16-49 from the field for a 32.7% clip, including 4-15 from behind the arc.

 After falling behind 10-6 early in the first quarter, Mars Hill used an 11-2 to close out the opening frame following a pair of free throws from Chavis. The Lions were able to build up to their biggest lead of the first half at 23-16 when Sydney Comer knocked down a couple shots from the charity stripe with 6:19 remaining before the intermission. MHU took a 31-25 lead into halftime.

L-R opened the third quarter with a 9-2 run to take the lead at 34-33 for the first time since the 2:26 mark of the initial quarter. Both teams traded baskets over the next several minutes before the Bears used another mini run to extend their lead to its biggest thus far, 48-38, with just over a minute left in the third. Genice Lane split a pair of free throws and the Lions trailed 48-39 entering the final stanza.

Ricker drained her lone three of the game to start the fourth to cut the deficit to 48-42, but that would be as close as the Blue and Gold would get. Lenoir-Rhyne countered every attack from the Lions and pulled out the low-scoring 64-52 win.

The Lions will be the #4 seed in the upcoming South Atlantic Conference Tournament and will play host to Lincoln Memorial on Wednesday, March 2 at Stanford Arena. The start time for that matchup is TBA.