Trailing by as many as 12 in the second half, Women’s Basketball’s comeback attempt fell short, falling 73-67 at East Carolina on Friday night.
“We showed a lot of fight to battle back into this game after going down by so much,” said Head Coach Jody Craig. “Our defense came up big and we gave ourselves a chance to come back and win this game.”
Junior guard Sierra Green led Monmouth with 19 points, including five three-point shots.
Freshman forward Lucy Thomas had a double-double, scoring 13 points and grabbing 11 rebounds in what was her second career game.
The Pirates opened the game with five straight points, forcing Monmouth to call a timeout after just a minute and 28 seconds of play.
East Carolina continued their first quarter push, extending their lead to 18-2 with 3:20 remaining in the first quarter.
The Hawks closed the quarter strong, going on an 8-1 run to make it 19-10 after ten minutes of play.
Monmouth was able to cut the deficit to as little as six in the second quarter, but went into halftime down 44-36. Green had four three-point shots in the quarter.
Halfway through the third quarter, Monmouth embarked on a 10-0 scoring run to get within three points with 4:23 remaining in the frame.
Thomas hit three three-point shots in the third, her last bringing her team within two with just under four minutes left in the quarter. East Carolina went into the fourth quarter with a 60-53 lead.
In the fourth, Monmouth once again came back, as Green hit a three and senior center Erica Balman sank a free throw to bring the Hawks to within one, 60-59, with 7:57 remaining.
The game became a defensive battle after that, as it remained that score through to the media timeout in the quarter.
Monmouth cut it to one once again with 2:23 left, but the Pirates pulled away on five free throws in the final 34 seconds.
Monmouth shot 35 percent from the field, and 50 percent from three. They went 10-18 (55 percent) from the free throw line.
Eleven of the 12 players that saw the court for the Hawks scored. Monmouth turned the ball over 34 times in the contest.
“Decision-making and turnovers cost us an opportunity to get a great road win. We have to learn how to finish a game,” Craig said.
The Hawks next headed to Lehigh where they were defeated yesterday morning, 63-48.
Monmouth came as close to being within three points of Lehigh with 8:45 left in the third quarter, but a 31-19 run from then on gave the Mountain Hawks a comfortable win.
Monmouth dropped to 0-3 on the young season with the loss.
Next, the Hawks will fly south to take on Virginia Tech. Friday’s game is set for a 7:00 p.m. tip off and can be streamed live on ESPN3.
