Women’s Basketball: EMU fourth-quarter comeback comes up short

The EMU basketball women lost their home opener to Hood on Saturday by a score of 57-52. The Royals fall to 0-3 to start off their season.

Eastern Mennonite hosts the two-day EMU Invitational beginning on Friday, Nov. 22 as the women take on Southern Virginia at 5:00pm. This game is also the Rowdy Royals game for the women where all of EMU’s athletes will be in attendance wearing white.

Chloe Roach (Leesburg, Va./Tuscarora) scored the first five points with a layup and three pointer to begin the game for EMU. Hood took advantage of a Royals’ scoring drought to take a two-point lead before Tiffany Carey (Bedford, Va./Jefferson Forest) scored seven straight points giving EMU a 16-11 lead at the end of the first quarter.

The Blazers used a 9-2 run through most of the period to retake the lead as they led 23-22 going into halftime.

Chrissy Delawder (Broadway, Va./Broadway) scored seven points in the first few minutes of the third quarter as the Royals kept pace with Hood. Carey made a three pointer with five minutes to play in the quarter to spark a 10-0 run for EMU to giving them momentum entering the fourth quarter.

Back-to-back layups for the Blazers brought them back within two points. With 6:13 left, Lexi Deffenbaugh (Fishersville, Va./Wilson Memorial) hit a three pointer to put the Royals back up by five. Twelve straight points for Hood pushed them back into a seven point lead with 1:44 to go.

Roach drove to the hoop to make a layup with 30 seconds left to pull EMU within one point. But the Royals were unable to force a turnover on the defensive end down the stretch as Hood made four free throws to seal the win.

The Royals shot 31.1% from the floor, while Hood made 34.3% of their shots. Most of the Blazers points came in the paint where they score 34 compared to EMU’s 18 points.

Carey led the Royals with 14 points and seven rebounds. Deffenbaugh had nine points with four steals as Delawder scored nine points and had 11 rebounds. Roach finished with 11 points.

Mia Savoy led Hood with 19 points and seven rebounds. Marlise Newson scored 18 points with eight rebounds.