STAUNTON, Va. – The Mary Baldwin University women's basketball team fell to Roanoke, 82-57, in nonconference action in the PAC on Saturday afternoon.
The Fighting Squirrels sit at 3-2 on the season, while the Maroons pull to 3-1 on the young season.
Jalen Gathers was the leading scorer for MBU with 11 points and also pulled down five rebounds. Kenda Robinson finished with nine points on 4-of-5 shooting from the field, three rebounds an assist, a block and a steal in 17 minutes off the bench.
Brooke Anders nailed two threes and finished with eight points, while Cauy Duboise led the team with seven rebounds and tallied four steals with four points.
The Fighting Squirrels got the first points of the game on a pair of free throws by Gathers before the Maroons mounted a 15-4 run over the next six minutes capped by a jumper from Kayla Kinsler. The two sides alternated baskets before Anders made two of three free throws with no time left on the clock as RC held a 23-11 lead after one period of play.
Back-to-back layups from Kinsler to start the second quarter put the Maroons up 16 before eventually stretching out their lead to 21 (44-23) with just over a minute left in the half. A three from Morgan Micallef and a layup from Robinson ended the half with RC on top 47-25.
In the second half, Mary Baldwin scored the first three baskets in the quarter and cut the lead down to 15 (47-32) to force a timeout from Roanoke with 7:29 left in the period. A pair of jumpers for Micallef and a free throw edged the Maroons back in front my 20 (52-32) before starting to pull away again after a three from Sayre Brandstatter to push the lead to 62-35. Alternating baskets and a three-point play by Kristina Harrel gave RC a 68-38 advantage at the end of the third quarter.
The Fighting Squirrels outscored the Maroons in the fourth quarter, 19-14, with Harrel registering 12 of the 14 points for the visitors. A balanced scoring attack from MBU had seven players register points in the quarter with Heilig recording five points in the period.
As a team, Mary Baldwin shot 29.1 percent (16-55) from the floor and just 15.0 percent (3-20) from beyond the arc. The Fighting Squirrels converted on just 53.7 percent of their free throws (22-41), including only 50.0 percent in the second half. Meanwhile, Roanoke shot 41.9 percent from the field (31-74) and dropped seven threes in the win. The Maroons also outrebounded the home side by a 59-36 margin.
The Fighting Squirrels return to action on Tuesday, Nov. 26, as they travel to face Bridgewater at 6 pm in their final contest before Thanksgiving break.
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