Second-Half Comeback Falls Short for No. 20 Tartans at No. 9 Washington U.

(ST. LOUIS, Mo.) – The Carnegie Mellon University women's basketball team traveled to St. Louis, Missouri, to face the Washington University Bears on Friday, February 3. The Bears, ranked ninth in the nation by D3hoops.com, defended their home court with a 79-69 victory over the 20th-ranked Tartans. The Tartans are now 15-4 overall and 4-4 in the University Athletic Association (UAA) while the Bears move to 17-2 and 6-2.

Senior Lisa Murphy (McLean, Va./McLean) led the Tartans with her 14th double-double of the season with 21 points and 12 rebounds. Freshman Makayla Filiere (Chandler, Ariz./Hamilton) scored 15 points for the Tartans while senior Jackie Hudepohl (Saratoga, Calif./Lynbrook (Colgate)) rebounded from a scoreless first half to tally 12 for the game.

The Tartans trailed 22-19 at the end of the first period, as Murphy led with nine points. The Bears hit five shots from behind the arc and grabbed twice as many rebounds, including six on the offensive end to record seven second-chance points.

The Bears opened the second quarter with a three-pointer by Natalie Orr, the fourth of the game for the junior, and built a 30-19 lead before Murphy converted a layup off a feed to the post by Hudepohl with 6:47 showing on the clock.

Another 2:42 ticked off the clock before the Tartans scored again on a put-back layup by freshman Laurel Pereira (Naperville, Ill./Naperville North). The Bears built an 18-point lead up until that basket and went on to lead 45-27 at the break.

The Tartans, who shot 53.8% in the first quarter, dropped to 35.7% for the half, while the Bears connected on 46.3% of their attempts.

Four three-pointers by the Tartans in the third quarter helped the visitors cut the deficit to 10 points but a four-point run to close the quarter gave the Bears a 59-45 advantage.

Back-to-back three-pointers by Filiere brought the Tartans back within 10 points, 73-63, with 3:36 to play. Following a Bear turnover, Hudepohl drained a baseline jumper to make the deficit eight but the Bears responded with two buckets inside and went on for the 79-69 win.

Orr led the Bears with 19 points with Madeline Homoly scoring 17 points off the bench.

The Tartans will next visit the University of Chicago on Sunday, February 5 at 1:00 p.m. CT. The Maroons defeated Case Western Reserve University Friday, 87-74, to move to 13-6 overall and 6-2 in the UAA.