MONMOUTH, Ill. — The Monmouth College women’s basketball team pulled away in the final five minutes Saturday and went on to a 72-57 Midwest Conference victory over Lawrence University at Glennie Gymnasium.
Leah Reeves scored 14 points and grabbed seven rebounds to pace Lawrence (2-9, 0-6 MWC). Olivia Hoesley added 13 points, and Lauren Deveikis had nine points and a team-best four assists for the Vikings.
Maddie Dohleman scored 16 points to lead three Monmouth players in double figures.
Lawrence trailed by double digits at 53-42 with two minutes left in the third quarter but the Vikings rallied. Lawrence went on an 8-2 run, capped by Deveikis’ layup, to trim the margin to 55-50 with 7:09 remaining.
The teams traded baskets before Izy Todd hit her second consecutive 3-pointer to trigger a 9-0 outburst that gave Monmouth (2-9, 2-4) a 67-52 advantage with 1:58 remaining.
Aubrey Scott, who finished with eight points and seven rebounds, then hit a 3-pointer for Lawrence to finally stop the run. Hoesley followed with a jumper to cut the lead to 67-57 but that’s as close as the Vikings would get.
Monmouth went 5-for-6 from the foul line in the final minute to seal the victory.
The Scots led the entire game but didn’t pull away from Lawrence until the final minutes. Monmouth led by as many as six points in the opening quarter but back-to-back 3-pointers from Scott and Deveikis helped cut the margin to 18-16 after one quarter.
Monmouth went up 24-16 early in the second quarter, but the Vikings scored seven consecutive points, including five from Hoesley, to cut the lead to 24-23. The Scots went back up by six, but Shonell Benajmin’s jumper in the final seconds of the second quarter trimmed Monmouth’s lead to 35-33 at the half.