New York, N.Y. – The Mount Saint Mary College Women's Basketball team suffered its first loss of the season on Tuesday evening following a 58-48 road loss at Hunter. Sophomore Jessica Rini (Seaford, N.Y.) led the Knights with 15 points in the game.
 
Mount Saint Mary held the lead only briefly in the early going on Tuesday when Megan Kerutis (Merrimack, N.H.) gave the Knights an early 2-0 edge just 39 seconds into the tilt. The Hawks answered with the next five points, including a three-pointer from Widly Couloute, to move in front for good in the game with 7:18 left in the first quarter.
 
The Hawks pushed their lead to double-figures on a Jade Aponte triple in the middle stages of the second stanza, before the Mount used an 8-0 spurt to slash its deficit to 19-17 with just under two minutes left before halftime on a Rini conversion. The Knights outscored Hunter 12-10 in the second quarter to head into the intermission trailing 23-19.
 
Mount Saint Mary held Hunter to 26.5-percent shooting before halftime, but saw the Hawks knock in five three-point field goals. The Knights shot 29.2-percent from the floor over the opening 20 minutes, but did not attempt a three-pointer. Rini led all scorers at the break with 10 points on 4-for-7 shooting.
 
The two point deficit late in the second period would be as close as the Knights would get the remainder of the day, as Hunter used a 7-1 run to open the third quarter to spread its lead back to 30-20. The Hawks scored seven second chance points in the third frame as they took a 36-26 lead into the fourth quarter.
 
Hunter maintained a lead of at least seven points throughout the fourth quarter and gained its largest advantage of the game when a Selina Lim bucket pushed the Hawks in front 46-32 with 6:05 remaining in regulation time.
 
The Knights scored half of their 22 points in the fourth quarter off of Hunter turnovers and finished the second half shooting just shy of 41-percent from the floor. Hunter finished with two more field goals overall after halftime than the Mount and connected on three more triples in the second half. Couloute finished off the final 20 minutes with 11 points for the Hawks.
 
Mount Saint Mary finished the game shooting 34.8-percent from the floor, but finished 0-for-4 from behind the arc. The Knights were outrebounded in the game 40-34, including 15-7 on the offensive glass, and were outscored 11-6 in second chance opportunities.
 
Rini was the only Mount Saint Mary player to reach double-figures, scoring 15 points on 6-for-10 shooting. She added as team-high six rebounds and swiped a pair of steals. Kerutis and Bridget Kelly (Farmington, Conn.) each scored eight points, with Elizabeth Limonta (Stewart Manor, N.Y.) adding five boards and three blocked shots. Daisha Madden (Baltimore, Md.) added five points and a team-high three assists.
 
Couloute led three Hunter players in double-figures with 16 points, going 6-for-10 from the floor and 2-for-5 from three-point range. Aponte chipped in with 13 points and Ashley Yu totaled 10 points. Ayanna Hudson led all players on Tuesday with 13 rebounds.
 
Tuesday's loss drops Mount Saint Mary to 1-1 overall on the season. Next up for the Knights is a non-conference road tilt at Manhattanville. Tip-off with the Valiants is set for 6:00 p.m.

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