Boston, Mass. – Junior Kayla Cleare (West Hempstead, N.Y.) led four players in double-figures with a season-high 14 points, but the Mount Saint Mary College Women's Basketball team was upended by Ave Maria in its first game of the Emerson Tip-Off Classic by a score of 73-61.
 
Mount Saint Mary never led in the contest and saw the Gyrenes jump out to a 10-0 lead just over two minutes into the contest. The Knights would not score until a Cleare conversion nearly three minutes into the game, starting a 7-3 stretch that brought the Mount to within 13-10.
 
Ave Marie spread the lead back out to nine points following a Jasmine Bateman three-pointer and a Kate Houbolt triple with 68 seconds left in the opening stanza closed an 11-2 spurt for the Gyrenes to close the period with a 24-12 lead.
 
Mount Saint Mary closed its disadvantage to eight points in the early stages of the second frame, but saw Ave Marie pull away with a 14-4 run capped by a Lauren Gillingham jumper that gave the Gyrenes a 40-22 lead.
 
The Knights climbed back to within nine points with just over a minute left before halftime on a Jessica Rini (Seaford, N.Y.) jumper, but Ave Marie scored the final five points of the quarter to carry a 45-31 advantage into halftime.
 
Ave Marie went 9-for-10 from the floor in the second period in opening the halftime lead and finished the opening 20 minutes 18-for-29 from the floor, including a 6-for-8 effort from three-point range. The Knights shot just over 43-percent before halftime, but struggled from bonus distance, going 2-for-8.
 
Ave Marie maintained a double-figure lead throughout the second half and saw its advantage grow to a game-high 19 points on two occasions. The Knights would battle back to get within 10 twice in the fourth quarter, with Cleare cutting the disadvantage to 69-59 with just over three minutes left to play and then to 71-61 with under a minute left in the contest.
 
Ave Marie cooled in the fourth period, going just 3-for-12 from the floor, but finished the game shooting 50.9-percent overall and 38.9-percent from three-point range. Houbolt led four players in double-figures with 16 points and hauled in nine rebounds, with Bateman adding 15 points off the bench.
 
Cleare finished the contest an efficient 7-for-9 from the floor, adding five rebounds and a pair of blocks to her season-high point total. Rini finished with 12 points and six boards with Elizabeth Limonta (Stewart Manor, N.Y.) adding 10 points and a team-high seven rebounds. Freshman Katie Smith (Goshen, N.Y.) posted a career-high with 10 points, joining Maite Gritsko (Milford, Conn.) with three assists.
 
The Knights finished shooting 42.1-percent from the floor on Saturday, but 4-for-15 from three-point range. The Mount outscored Ave Marie 26-18 in the paint and 8-2 in transition, but the Gyrenes turned 17 Mount Saint Mary turnovers into a 26-12 edge in points off miscues.
 
At 1-1 overall on the season, Mount Saint Mary closes its trip to Boston on Sunday afternoon against Middlebury. Tip-off with the Panthers is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.