by CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – Baker women’s basketball fell to Mount Mercy, 92-71 on Saturday afternoon in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in the Wildcats’ second road game of the week.
Facing a Mustangs team that scored at least 22 points in three of the quarters, the Wildcats couldn’t match the high-flying MMU offense as the home team shot just under 50 percent (48.5%) and tallied nine threes in the game to earn their 11th conference win of the year.
Leah Van Weelden led the Wildcats in scoring with 22 points with a perfect 5-for-5 mark at the free-throw line. Jaelyn Two Hearts recorded her seventh 20-point outing of the year after finishing with exactly 20 points and chipping in six rebounds. Alyssa Morris just missed on her first double-double as a Wildcat, going for 13 points and nine rebounds.
The Mustangs came out firing to open things up in the first quarter, jumping out to a 20-4 lead thru the game’s first six minutes. Morris splashed in a three to cool off the MMU run and added a layup off a nice hesitation move on a drive in the lane.
Two Hearts nailed a last-second jumper to close out a solid response by the Wildcats, who found themselves climbing out of a double-digit hole to trail, 26-17 at the end of the first quarter.
In the second quarter, a couple of free throws by Morris put the Wildcats within 10, but the Mustangs would start to stretch their advantage from there. MMU hit a 3-pointer and followed with an old-fashioned three-point play to take a 20-point lead with 90 seconds left in the half.
Morris’ second three of the half closed out Baker’s scoring in the period as the Wildcats went into the break trailing, 54-35.
Looking to erase their first-half deficit, the Wildcats used an 11-3 run to start the half and make it a 14-point ballgame before the Mustangs ran their lead right back up to 20 points and pushed it to their biggest lead of the game at 74-49 with just over two minutes remaining in the third quarter.
Once again, a Morris three capped off the quarter for the Wildcats as they went into the final period trailing by 24 points.
In the fourth, Van Weelden knocked down a triple to cut MMU’s lead to under 20 points and a layup by Matalina Ochoa made it 82-65, but the Mustangs would hold their double-digit lead the rest of the way and come out with a 92-71 win.
