Women's Basketball Drops a 64-49 Decision at the Mount

(boxscore)

2/26/05 -- Junior Amber Wirth (Hastings, Minn.) scored 14 points and sophomore Sara Oblak (Skofja Loka, Slovenia) added 12 for Long Island, which suffered a 64-49 Northeast Conference loss at Mount St. Mary’s in Emmitsburg, Md.

Freshman Mikaelar Whippy (Suva, Fiji) converted a 3-point play with 6:01 remaining as the Blackbirds (9-17, 5-12 NEC) closed to 45-39. That capped a 9-3 run in which Whippy scored five points.

Mount St. Mary’s (9-17, 8-9) took over from there, holding LIU without a basket over the next 4:20 by going on a 15-3 run. Rebecca Wike scored eight points in that stretch for the Mountaineers, who shot 7-of-8 from the line in that span for a 60-42 lead with 2:52 to play.

The Blackbirds shot just 27 percent (8-of-30) from the floor in the second half and 24 percent (13-of-54) overall to see their seven-game winning streak over the Mountaineers snapped. It was their first such loss since January 27, 2001.

Wirth reached double figures for the 13th time this season and Oblak did so for the 15th time, but it was not enough to prevent LIU from its ninth straight loss.

Tiffany Green poured in 16 points, Wike netted 14 and Samira Rashid contributed 11 for the Mountaineers, who shot 43 percent (12-of-28) in the second half. LaToya Butler grabbed 11 rebounds to help her team gain a 46-37 edge.

LIU closes the regular season Monday at St. Francis (PA). Tip-off is at 7:00 pm.