FAIRMONT, W. Va. – The Urbana University women’s basketball team had its three-game win streak snapped by Fairmont State Monday night after an 83-73 setback inside Joe Retton Arena.
Both teams moved to 6-4 and tied for fourth in Mountain East Conference play, while UU fell to 7-7 overall.
In Monday’s late game, the UU men fell to Fairmont State, 99-81. Mike Newton scored a team-high 18 points for UU.
Senior forward Tori Purk led the Blue Knight women in scoring for the second straight game with 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting. Purk also went 5 of 6 at the free-throw line and pulled down four rebounds.
Three other Blue Knights reached double figures in the scoring column, including reigning MEC Player of the Week Megan Beachy with 15 points. The freshman guard led UU with three 3-pointers and registered four boards with three assists.
Sophomore guard Danie Shafer recorded 14 points and senior guard Kennedy Boggs chipped in 13 points, six boards and team-high four assists.
The Blue Knights trailed by 19 in the second quarter and went down 43-27 at the half. A poor shooting performance was to blame over the first 20 minutes, as UU finished at 27.6 percent and 0 for 10 beyond the arc.
UU didn’t cave at the break and came out firing in the third quarter, utilizing a 14-4 run to climb back in it. The spurt was capped by a pair of Beachy free throws to make it a six-point game at 47-41 with 4:40 left in the quarter.
Eventually, UU outscored the Falcons 22-10 in the third, and got within two points on a layup by Stefanie Davis near the end of the quarter.
Down 53-49 entering the fourth, UU sophomore Jazmyn Haley took over with seven straight points to give the Blue Knights their first lead at 56-55 with 8:14 left.
Then, the game turned into a back-and-forth affair as back-to-back threes from Beachy and Davis made it 67-64 Falcons with 3:13 remaining. But that was as close as UU would keep it after FSU outscored the Blue and Grey 16-9 down the stretch.
UU shot 56.3 percent in the second half, including 5 of 10 made shots from three-point range. The Blue Knights were out-rebounded 33-29 during the contest.
The Falcons were led by five players in double digits with Amanda Ruffner netting a game-high 27 points. FSU shot 58.5 percent from the floor.
UU will close out a three-game road trip when it travels to in-state MEC rival Notre Dame College on Thursday. UU returns home on Saturday for a 2 p.m. league matchup against Wheeling Jesuit.
