The Lancaster Bible College women's basketball team saw its season-opening losing streak reach four games on Saturday afternoon, falling to Mount Aloysius, 56-45 at the Horst Athletic Center. The Chargers are now 0-4 overall this season, while the Mounties improved to 1-3.
 
How it Happened: Lancaster Bible jumped out to a 7-2 lead over the first 2:30 of the game, as Caitlin Hickey and Alaysha Iwais knocked down back-to-back shots. The Chargers eventually built a 13-5 advantage on a jumper by Adalyn Steiner with 1:18 to play in the first quarter, and Lancaster Bible led, 15-7 after 10 minutes of play.
 
Lancaster Bible had its lead cut to five early in the second quarter, but the Chargers got a layup from Hickey with 7:36 remaining in the half, and built its lead back to eight, 18-10. Unfortunately for the Chargers, those were the final points of the half for the home team, and Mount Aloysius ended the half on a 16-0 run, and led 26-18 after 20 minutes of play.
 
Lancaster Bible finally broke an 11-minute scoring drought with 6:21 to play in the third quarter, as Hickey drained one of her three 3-pointers, and the Chargers trailed just 28-21. Jordyn Beers completed a three-point play a minute later to cut the deficit to six, 30-24, but the Mounties used a 7-2 run the rest of the quarter to grab a 37-26 lead after 30 minutes of action.
 
The fourth quarter was a tale of two stories, as Mount Aloysius built a 52-31 lead with 4:54 remaining, but Lancaster Bible scored 14 of the next 15 points, and a free throw from Iwais cut the deficit to eight, 53-45 with 53 seconds to play. The Chargers played hard in the final minutes, but ran out of time, and couldn't complete the comeback.
 
Statistically Speaking: Lancaster Bible shot just 24.6 percent (14-of-57) from the floor, including 23.5 percent (4-of-17) from 3-point range…Mount Aloysius shot 37.5 percent (18-of-48) from the field, and 31.8 percent (7-of-22) from beyond the arc…The Mount Aloysius bench outscored the Chargers, 20-6, while Lancaster Bible held a 16-14 edge in points in the paint…Hickey led all scorers with 22 points, and also added eight rebounds…Iwais added eight points and three rebounds, while Lizzy Tilton had six rebounds and five assists to go with two blocks…Jordyn Beers had four points and six rebounds, while Adalyn Steiner had six points and nine rebounds…Hannah Kitko and Emma Kitko each had 14 points to pace the Mounties.
 
The Coach Says: "I thought we started the game well, and were looking to attack the basket, but when our shots didn't fall in the second quarter, it really deflated us, and it took until the fourth quarter for us to work out of it," Lancaster Bible Head Coach Katelyn Vanderhoff said. "I love that we didn't give up and fought until the end, but we have to be more disciplined defensively, and have to have better offensive possessions."
 
News & Notes: Lancaster Bible is now 0-14 all-time against Mount Aloysius…Saturday's meeting was the first time the teams had met since February 7, 2011 when the Mounties defeated the Chargers, 68-58 in Lancaster, Pa. …Lancaster Bible is 5-5 in its past 10 home openers …The Chargers defeated Penn St. Schuylkill, 76-30 in last season's home opener…Lancaster Bible only had 11 points in the second and third quarters combined…Hickey has scored 16 or more points in each of Lancaster Bible's four games this season, including over 20 in the past two…With her 20^th point of the game on Saturday, Hickey became the fourth player in program history to surpass 1,500 points for a career, joining Aubrey Folger, Katy Stover, and Lauren Heliger.
 
Up Next: Lancaster Bible is off for the Thanksgiving holiday, and returns to action on Wednesday, Dec. 4 at York (Pa.)…Tip-off is set for 6 p.m.