The Emerson women’s basketball team got off to a solid start in non-conference play. Their early highlights included a home-opening victory and history on the road—scoring a program record 103 points in a dominant Sunday win over Mitchell College.

The Lions were back at Bobbi Brown & Steven Plofker Gym Tuesday night, hoping to keep the momentum going against the Endicott Gulls. Despite a spirited fourth quarter, they lost 76-69.

The Lions took control early on, as a layup from senior guard Olivia Deslauriers put them up 10-3 with 6:15 remaining. The Gulls battled back, cutting the deficit to 12-10 with 4:07 remaining in the period. Emerson ended the period with a 6-0 run, as senior guard Ava Salti found first-year forward Kaylin O’Meara for a layup with 40 seconds remaining. Emerson led at 18-10 at the end of the first quarter.

Endicott mounted a strong response in the second quarter, outscoring Emerson 15-4 to take a 25-22 lead with five minutes remaining. Senior guard Ella Bushee scored a putback layup with 4:38 to go, but she received a technical foul for shoving her defender afterwards. Endicott nailed both technical free throws to lead 27-24. With the game eventually tied at 30, the Gulls made a jumper with 39 seconds left, followed by a three-pointer to beat the buzzer. The Lions trailed 35-30 at halftime.

The Gulls extended their lead in the third quarter, eventually going up 44-32 with a layup at the 6:19 mark. The Lions began chipping away bucket by bucket. Deslauriers nailed Emerson’s first three of the game with 5:20 to go, ending a streak of 12 missed triples up to that point. Two quick buckets by Endicott put them up by double digits again with less than four minutes remaining. A putback layup by first-year forward Elise Arnold got the Lions within ten, 50-40, with less than a minute to go. The Gulls and Deslauriers traded layups to end the quarter, and Emerson faced a 52-42 deficit heading into the fourth.

The Lions’ comeback continued in the final frame, as they the deficit to single digits with Bushee’s free throws at the 9:04 mark. An electric sequence soon brought the energy back to Brown-Plofker. Deslauriers blocked an Endicott layup, then Frongillo’s outlet pass found Bushee for a layup with 8:47 remaining. That brought the deficit to six, 54-48. Layups from Levison and Deslauriers soon got Emerson within four, 56-52, with 6:20 remaining. The Lions continued to fight, as Frongillo’s layup kept them within striking distance, 60-56, at the five-minute mark. Endicott proceeded to go on a 7-0 run with under three minutes to play. The Lions converted points off of free throws and layups, trailing 73-67 with 25 seconds to play. The comeback came up short, however, as the Lions fell 76-69 and handed Endicott their first win of the season.

Four Lions—Bushee, Frongillo, Deslauriers and Levison—ended the game in double figures, with Bushee’s 19 points leading the way. As a team, the Lions had a rough shooting night. They made 27 of their 71 shot attempts (38%) and only one three-pointer out of 18 attempts (5.6%), but they hit 14 of 16 free-throws (87.5%). Emerson also scored 44 of their points in the paint and converted 28 points off of Endicott’s turnovers.

Following the game, Head Coach Bill Gould was encouraged by the team’s start and finish to the game.

“I like the fact that we competed in the fourth quarter and really came back and tried to do a good job,” he said. “We had a bad middle of the game—the second and third quarters were just not good. I thought our first quarter was solid and then our fourth quarter was pretty good. We just didn’t have enough in the middle, that’s what hurt us.”

The 3-3 Lions will be on the road after the break, traveling to Framingham State on Sat., Dec. 2, at 12:00 p.m. Gould hopes they use the extra time after Thanksgiving to get ready for a bounce back.

“We have three days where we’re just doing a lot of our own stuff,” Gould said. “We’re not worried about an opponent, we’re not worried about anything else. We’re just focused on our own stuff…Doing a lot of running, working out that turkey, and Thursday and Friday, we’ll get ready for Saturday.”