GREENCASTLE, Ind. – The Allegheny College women's basketball team began a two-game road swing on a sour note as the Gators fell to DePauw University, 63-53, this evening in North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) play.
Allegheny (10-10, 5-6 NCAC) bounced back from a poor-shooting first half (21.9 percent) by converting 47.8 percent (11-23) of its field goals in the second half, but DePauw (15-6, 9-3 NCAC) maintained a lead for nearly the contest's duration thanks to a 54.6 percent conversion rate on its shots in the opening 20 minutes.
Senior forwards
Ifeyinwa Uwazie and
Emma Pellicano were in double-figures for the Gators, tallying 12 and 10 points, respectively. Classmate
Jessica Mrdjenovich and freshman guard
Candaisy Crawford added nine points each.
Allegheny held a slight 18-13 edge in bench points thanks to Crawford's contributions, but were topped in points in the paint (30-18), points off turnovers (20-16), and second chance points (7-3).
The Tigers' lead would reach 10 in the second quarter before the Gators began to chomp back. Crawford canned a pair of three-pointers to pull Allegheny within four, but that was met with two baskets from DePauw's Taylor Howard, who led all scorers with 19 points on the evening. After freshman guard
Delaney Arbore sank two of three attempts from the chalk on the next possession, the Tigers scored on their next two to regain the 10-point advantage. That edge would be cut in half with a Mrdjenovich trifecta and two free-throws from freshman forward
Olivia Barkley, but that's as close as the Gators would get until the fourth quarter.
Trailing 51-37 early in the final frame, Allegheny would try again to storm back into the game beginning with an old-fashioned three-point play by Uwazie. Pellicano drilled a shot from international waters to trim the difference to eight before a jumper from Colleen Connors briefly halted the Gators' comeback attempt. That was answered with a couple of jumpers from Mrdjenovich in a minute's span, which was then followed up by a layup from Uwazie to make it 53-49 with three minutes to play.
Howard split a pair of foul shots on the other end, setting the stage for a basket from Uwazie to make it a one-possession game at 54-51. The sequence repeated itself once more to make it a two-point game with 1:48 remaining, but a couple of field goals from DePauw's Abby Keller were enough to seal the victory.
Senior forward
Kaitlyn Fromknecht blocked three shots in the defeat, bringing her program record totals to 78 for the season and 170 for her career.
Allegheny will look to get back on track tomorrow afternoon when it completes the road swing at 4:00 p.m. against Wittenberg University.
