EMMITSBURG, Md. – The Fairleigh Dickinson women's basketball team cut the Mount St. Mary's lead to two late in the third quarter but the Knights were unable to get the tying bucket and the Mountaineers came away with the 61-50 win on Monday night.

A Brianna Thomas layup with 1:17 left in the third quarter made it 41-39 Mount St. Mary's (4-13, 2-4 NEC). The Mountaineers responded with four straight free throws to make it a three-possession game and Fairleigh Dickinson (3-14, 1-5 NEC) would not get any closer. The bucket from Thomas capped an 11-1 spurt by the Knights.

The Knights would get the deficit to four, 45-41, on a bucket from Madelynn Comly to start the fourth quarter. Comly finished with 14 points and eight rebounds.

Head coach Peter Cinella told fduknights.com afterwards, "We did a good job of cutting the 15-point lead to two. The players did a good job of executing the offense in the second half and defensively got a lot of stops."

Mount St. Mary's would push the lead to eight, 49-41, at the 7:25 mark of the fourth on a Juliette Lawless layup. Fairleigh Dickinson would once against get within five after a three-point play from Courtney Blankenship. The freshman finished in double figures as well with 10 points.

After the Mount moved the lead back out to eight, the Knights got free throws from Comly and Kiana Brown to make it a five-point game – 55-50 – with a minute to play. Fairleigh Dickinson would not score again as Mount St. Mary's scored the final six points – four coming from the free-throw line – of the game.  

The Mountaineers went 23-of-32 from the charity stripe compared to the Knights' 9-of-16.

Mount St. Mary's used a pair of 6-0 scoring runs in the first quarter to lead 14-7 after one and not let Fairleigh Dickinson get into the game in the early going.

A pair of Thomas free throws moved the Knights to within five, 20-15, at the 5:13 mark of the second quarter. From then until halftime, the Mountaineers went on a 14-4 run to take a 34-19 lead into the locker room. Alexis Carter hit a pair of threes during the run and Ashlee White hit a layup right before the buzzer after starting from her own free throw line.

Thomas finished with her second double-double of the season with 10 points and 13 rebounds. Brown was also in double figures with 12 points, six rebounds and three assists.

Cinella added, "We have to do a better job of shooting the basketball from both in close and from three-point range. Keep improving and keep our turnovers low and get back to forcing turnovers."

The Knights shot 32-percent (19-of-58) for the game overall and 14-percent (3-of-21) from three-point range. Thirteen of the 39 misses by Fairleigh Dickinson were on layups. The three 3-pointers were the fewest for the Knights since hitting two in a loss to Air Force back in November.

Mount St. Mary's was led by Carter's double-double -- 18 points and 15 rebounds -- off the bench. White was also in double figures for the Mountaineers with 11 points.

Up next for Fairleigh Dickinson is a home game against LIU Brooklyn on Saturday, January 21. Game time is set for 2 p.m. as part of a doubleheader with the men, who also play the Blackbirds.