PITTSBURGH, Pa. – The Capital women’s basketball team could not recover from a slow start in an 80-67 loss to Case Western Reserve on Saturday at the UAA/OAC Challenge hosted by Carnegie Mellon University.
Capital (1-1) was led by the senior duo of Caitlin Elsass (Batavia, Ohio/Clermont Northeastern HS) and Heather McAlpin (Cincinnati, Ohio/Colerain HS). Elsass finished with 16 points, eight rebounds two steals and a block in 36 minutes of play. McAlpin led all players with nine rebounds to go along with 13 points, two steals, one assist and one block.
Overall, the Crusaders made just 24-of-74 (.324) shots from the field, but hit 6-of-16 (.375) three-point attempts in the second half to close the margin. CU had a 48-38 advantage in rebounding overall and a 26-11 lead in offensive boards to take a 24-11 edge in second chance points.
Case Western Reserve (1-1) countered with three players of its own in double figures led by 21 points from Erin Hollinger. Ashleigh Tondo and Caitlin Henry followed with 19 and 18 points respectively for Case, which made 63.6 percent of its shots in the second half to hold on for victory.
Capital made just 7-of-30 shots from the field in the first half and trailed by as many as 19 points with 12:15 left in the second half before a late run brought the Crusaders back into the game. Audrey Mitchell, Katy Lafferty and Abbey Winland each made a three-point shot and less than two minutes later, CU was within 11 at 48-37. The Crusaders finally got within single digits when McAlpin followed up her own miss at the 6:08 mark and was fouled in the process. After she made the free throw, CU trailed 59-51 but would get no closer in a 13-point loss to the Spartans.
The Crusader women’s basketball team returns to the road for another non-conference game with Kenyon on Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET.