Women's Basketball Falls Short in Comeback Bid

by Nathan Baliva

MONMOUTH, Ill. (01/04/2024) — The Monmouth College women's basketball team's frantic comeback fell just short in a 62-60 home loss to Lawrence University on Wednesday night. The Scots trailed 54-40 at the start of the fourth quarter and outscored the Vikings 20-8 over the final 10 minutes but missed a pair of shots on the final possession

Lawrence scored the first three points before Jadyn Mitchell (Flanagan, Illinois) made two free throws. Danielle Beach (Geneseo, Illinois) scored at the rim but the Vikings scored five straight for a 10-4 lead. Beach made a 3-pointer and Mitchell followed with another long-distance shot to tie the game at 10. Down four, Allie Hoy (Woodland, Illinois) hit a 3-pointer and she made another to tie the game at 16. Madison Heisch (Illinois City, Illinois) scored on the final possession of the quarter to give the Fighting Scots an 18-16 lead.

Kynlee Stearns (Gilson, Illinois) opened the second quarter with a basket before Lawrence tied the game at 20. The teams traded points with the game still tied at 26 before the Vikings hit a 3-pointer. They added another basket and Delaney Scheidenhelm (New Berlin, Illinois) answered for the Scots. Lawrence netted the final four points of the half for a 35-28 lead at the break.

The Vikings pushed the lead to 10 early in the third quarter before Ella Goodrich (Minonk, Illinois) scored four straight Monmouth points. With the Scots down 11, Mitchell and Ashley Jones (Abingdon, Illinois) both made free throws. Goodrich and Stearns also made free throws in the quarter but Lawrence extended the lead to 54-40 with a pair of 3-pointers.

Beach scored to start the fourth quarter but Lawrence still led 57-42. Jones was fouled in the act of shooting and the Vikings were called for a technical foul with 7:16 to play. Jones made all four free throws and the Scots retained possession with Jones getting fouled again. She converted both for a 6-point possession and Averi Rangel (Moline, Illinois) hit a jumper to cut the LU lead to 59-53. Hoy made two free throws and Goodrich scored at the rim to make it 60-58 with 1:42 to play. The Vikings pushed the lead back to four and Jones made two free throws with 1:00 left. The Vikings missed three shots on the next possession and Monmouth called timeout with 13.9 seconds left. A go-ahead 3-pointer fell short and the putback also wouldn't go down as the Vikings held on for the 62-60 win.

Goodrich led the Scots with 15 points and nine rebounds. Jones had 11 points while Beach had nine points and eight rebounds.

MONMOUTH MOMENTS: All nine players who saw action scored at least two pointsMonmouth was 21-for-30 at the free throw line with Jones making 9-of-14The Scots out-rebounded Lawrence 32-40Beach, Stearns, Hoy and Rangel all had two stealsMonmouth swept the season series last year and had been 8-1 in the last nine matchupsLawrence last won in Glennie Gym in the 2006-07 seasonMonmouth leads the all-time series 30-18The Scots play at Beloit on Saturday after the 1 p.m. men's gameThe next home game is Wednesday, Jan. 10 against Cornell after the 5:30 p.m. women's game.