Mary Baldwin outscored Ferrum 43-24 in the second half Sunday afternoon to pull away for an 81-55 victory, the fourth straight win to open the season for the Fighting Squirrels.
The Squirrels played most of the contest without starting guard Jalen Gathers who left with an injury early in the first quarter, but a balanced attach more than made up for her absence.
A'Cetta Farrait led the scoring for MBU with 16 points. Demet Saygili narrowly missed a rare triple-double as she finished with 15 points, nine assists and eight rebounds. She also had five steals. Mary Moran just missed a double-double with nine points and 10 rebounds. The bigest difference in the game was the Mary Baldwin bench as the reserves outscored the Ferrum becnh 37-0. Mya Coleman led the MBU bench with 14 points. Mekayla Clarke scored 12 and Monica Ramis added eight.
Mary Baldwin used an 18-2 run to start the second period to take control, extending a one-point lead to a 36-19 advantage. MBU scored the first 10 points of the quarter with Farrait starting the run with a jumper. Coleman and Clarke each added four points to put the Squirrels up 28-17.
After two Ferrum free throws, MBU added eight more points to take its biggest lead of the first half. Farrait knocked down two short jumpers and Ramis followed with a bucket, making the score 34-17. Moran then scored inside off a nifty pass from Ramis, giving MBU a 36-19 lead with 3:44 left in the half.
Ferrum fought back, closing the half with a 12-2 run to trail by just seven, 38-31 at the break.
The Panthers continued to chip away at the deficit and pulled even with the Squirrels when Jacy Marvin scored from 3-point range, tying the score at 43-43 with 6:10 left in the third quarter.
The Squirrels then responded with a 16-2 flurry to regain control. Saygili hit three foul shots and Coleman added a 3-pointer for a 49-43 MBU lead. After a layup by Ferrum's Kayla Cabiness, Mary Baldwin scored the next 10 points. Farrait scored from the baseline and Coleman made 1-of-2 foul shots, pushing the MBU lead to 52-45. Moran made a 10-footer before Saygili followed with a 3-pointer and two free throws, making the score 59-45 with 2:32 left in the third quarter.
Cameron Hawkins scored from in close for the Panthers, but buckets from Farrait and Saygili gave MBU a 63-47 lead at the end of the third quarter,
A 3-poiinter by Ferrum's Aisha Martin trimmed the margin to 10 points, 63-53, early in the fourth quarter, but Mary Baldwin then reeled off 13 unanswered points to put the game away, leading 76-53, with 4:11 left to play.
Mary Baldwin, now 4-0 on the season, returns to action Saturday when the Squirrels travel to Methodist for their first conference game of the season.