Langhorne, PA - The Highlanders hosted Baptist Bible College tonight and lost by a slim eight points, 66-58, to the Defenders. It was their closest margin of defeat since their Jan. 19 contest against Bryn Mawr College.
Amie Eppolito collected a season-high 27 points in the game. She was followed by
Tori Moll and
Amy Faust with eight points each. Faust and
Kristen Castner led the rebounding effort for the Highlanders with 11 boards each. Cairn out-rebounded Baptist Bible 38-33 as a team.
Baptist Bible jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead in the game but Cairn came back to tie the game at 10-10. The Highlanders then took control of the game and went on a 13-4 run over the next eight minutes in the first half for a 23-14 lead.
However, the Defenders reversed the tides back in their favor before halftime and went up 28-27. Eppolito scored 19 of her points in the first half on 7-12 shooting from the field. Simone Lichty led the Defenders through the first half with 11 points. Lichty finished out the game with 19 points total.
Through the first ten minutes of the second half, the Highlanders and Defenders traded the lead a few times while other Highlanders were making shots from around the court.
Regina Younger played a good game for Cairn with seven points and Castner finished with six along with her 11 rebounds.
Cairn took the lead 50-49 with 10:08 on the clock but that was the last lead that the Highlanders saw in the game. Danyel Bird hit a three-pointer shortly after to give the lead back to Baptist Bible, and less than two minutes later Lichty hit another three to go ahead by five.
The Highlanders put forth the effort down the stretch but just couldn't get the shots to drop through the iron. The Defenders also went 5-7 from beyond-the-arc in the second half to keep the Highlanders at arm's length. In total, Baptist Bible went 9-18 from three-point range.
Baptist Bible collected their second win of the season, the first of which coming against Cairn earlier in the year and moved to 2-18 overall and 2-12 in the conference. With the loss, the Highlanders dropped to 2-17 overall and 0-13 in the CSAC. Cairn will next play at Keystone College this Saturday, Feb. 13, at 1 p.m.
