Clarks Summit, PA - The Cairn women's basketball team came within one in the second half against Baptist Bible College but in the end lost 50-26. Amie Eppolito led the Highlanders' efforts with 13 points on the night.

Baptist Bible opened with a 12-2 lead five minutes into the game but kept the Defenders at arms length throughout the first half. The Highlanders' defense forced the Defenders to commit 11 turnovers in the first 20 minutes. 

Cairn went into the locker rooms trailing by 11 at 23-12. Amy Faust collected four points along with Eppolito's six. Baptist Bible's Alyssa Cole put up 10 points in the first stanza on five shots from the field. The Highlanders were just 1-18 from three-point range in the first half. 

Coming out of halftime, Eppolito hit one of her two three pointers to get within eight and the Highlanders didn't stop there. Eppolito nailed two more jumpers followed by Elizabeth Hartzler's only three pointer of the game. In the span of nearly six minutes, Cairn brought the score to 23-22 on a 10-0 run. 

Unfortunately the Defenders followed that up with a 6-0 run of their own and held the Highlanders to just four points for the remainder of the second half. Behind Eppolito's 13, Faust had six points followed by Hartzler's three and three more by Tori Moll. 

Bonnie Bouvier finished with 16 points to lead the Defenders, Cole finished with 14 and Callie Kitowski had 12. Kitowski also finished with 18 rebounds; Baptist Bible out-rebounded Cairn 53-33 for the evening. Emily Tambussi led the rebounding for Cairn with seven. 

With the loss, Cairn dropped to 2-8 on the year and 0-5 in the CSAC. Baptist Bible picked up their first win of the season and improved to 1-8 on the year and 1-3 in conference play. The Highlanders will next travel to Notre Dame of Maryland on Wednesday for a 7 p.m. start.