Langhorne, PA - On a brisk fall Saturday afternoon, the Cairn University Highlanders fell to non-conference foe New Jersey City University Gothic Knights at the Mason Activity Center.  A close game in the first half, quickly got out of control during the second half as the Gothic Knights outscored the Highlanders 18-8 in the third quarter increasing their lead to 43-29 going into the final quarter.  

The Highlanders were led offensively by Amie Eppolito (Levittown, PA) as she accounted for a game high 25 points going 5-14 from the field, 4-9 from behind the arc, and making good on 11 free throws from the charity stripe.  The Highlanders had a tough time as a team finding points as they were 10-49 from the field and 5-13 for three.  

The Highlanders were down from the beginning as the Gothic Knights quickly jumped out to a 9-2 lead until Eppolito unloaded for three consecutive threes to give Cairn their only lead of the game 11-9.  The lead was short lived as New Jersey City quickly tied the game at 11 on the next possession before the quarter would come to an end.

The Highlanders hung around for the second quarter, but saw the Gothic Knights take a 7 point lead with just over a minute to play in the first half.  A pair of Devon Rink (Perkasie, PA) free throws cut the lead to 5, followed by another Eppolito deep ball, would pull the Highlanders to within 2 points.  One more jumper for the visiting team before the half expired, and the Highlanders would go into the break down 4 points.

The Gothic Knights were relentless on defense as they consistently were applying pressure as soon as the Highlanders would put the ball back into play.  Turnovers plagued Cairn as they gave the ball up 32 total times, leading to 22 points for New Jersey City.  Every time the Highlanders would get close in the third quarter, the visiting Gothic Knights applied more pressure, as the Highlander were held to 8 points in the third quarter and found themselves in a 14 point hole going into the final 10 minutes.

The Highlanders broke out of their scoring slump in the final stanza, but it was too little too late.  Even though they scored 18 points, they also gave up 18 points as the final horn sounded and Cairn lost their third straight game by a score of 61-47.

The Gothic Knights picked up their first win of the season and improve to 1-2.  The Highlanders have no dropped three straight to open the season to fall to 0-3.  Cairn will be back in action as they continue non-conference play and will go on the road for the first time and play at Penn State Abington.  Tip-off is at 7 pm.