MEADVILLE, Pa.—The Allegheny College women's basketball team was unable to complete a fourth quarter comeback as they fell to Denison University 73-67 Saturday (Jan. 6) in North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) play.

The teams traded points to open the game before Rylee Donovan and Delaney Arbore scored back-to-back layups to give the Gators an 8-4 lead.  The Big Red cut the lead to 8-7 with just over four minutes to play in the first, but Emily Smith hit a three down the stretch to give the Gators an 11-7 lead after the opening ten minutes. 

The Gators maintained a four point lead in the second, with the Gators scoring six points in the paint.  However, over the final five minutes of the half, the Big Red went on a 13-2 run to own a 28-19 lead at the break.

Zoe Soilis led the Gators with six points in the opening half while Arbore had three.  Julianna Skowron had a team-high four rebounds. 

The Big Red lead grew to a game-high 13 points, 34-21, early in the third quarter.  Midway through, the Gators chopped the lead down to seven, 38-21, on a Madison Caufield free-throw.  The Big Red responded by pushing the lead back up to 13, 50-37, with 90 seconds left in the quarter.  A pair of Arbore free-throws cut the lead to 50-41 entering the fourth.

The first basket of the fourth, a three-pointer, went to Denison before the Gators started a comeback.  After scoring five straight points to cut the lead to 53-46, the Gators went on a 7-2 run, to bring the game within two points, 55-53, with just under seven minutes to play.  Of the seven Gator points on that run, Donovan scored five.

Leading by two, the Big Red pushed their lead back to six off a brief 4-0 run.  The Gators got the lead down to four, 61-57, but once again, Denison responded with a 4-0 run. 
In the final minutes, the Gators were able to bring the lead back down to five but it was not enough to complete the comeback as they fell in conference play.

Donovan led the Gators offense with a game-high 19 points to go with four rebounds and three assists.  Three players finished with a dozen points for Allegheny.  Skowron had 12 points with five rebounds.  Soilis had four rebounds to go with her 12 points while Arbore had 12 points with two rebounds and two assists.  Caufield finished the game with five points, seven rebounds and four assists. 

The Gator offense shot 16-of-28 (57.1%) in the second half to finish at 45.5% (25-of-55) for the game.  Allegheny performed well at the charity stripe, converting 13-of-14 free-throws. 

Valesha Province and Brittany Atkinson led Denison with 15 points apiece.

The Gators are back in action Wednesday (Jan. 10), playing host to the College of Wooster with a 4 p.m. NCAC contest in the Wise Center.