Freshmen Hannah Lilly and Savannah Morgan totaled 15 and 13 points, respectively, Friday evening but it wasn’t enough as the Emory women’s basketball team saw a furious late-game rally fall short in a loss to Case Western Reserve University.  The Eagles saw their overall record slip to 7-8, 0-4 in the University Athletic Association, following a 71-65 setback to the Spartans who boosted their overall slate to 10-5, 4-0 in the league.

The visiting Case squad shot 41.9 percent (26-of-62) from the floor compared to Emory’s mark of 35.6 percent (21-of-59).  The Spartans connected on 13-of-15 from the charity stripe while Emory sank 17-of-25 of its tries.  Case recorded a 41-34 advantage in the rebounding department.

A basket by Erin Hollinger, who finished the evening with 21 points, gave Case a 63-53 lead with 4:50 left in the game before the Eagles answered with nine straight points, keyed by three-point plays by sophomore Danielle Landry and junior Melissa Koike, to creep to within one point with 1:57 on the clock. After a jumper by Evy Iaacono, who paced all players with 27 points, upped Case’s lead back to three points, a bucket by Lilly cut the gap to one.  After Case scored on its ensuing possession, the Eagles had a chance to cut the lead to one or tie with a three-point field goal but turned the ball over.  Iacono scored the Spartans’ final four points from the foul line to stymie the Eagles’ comeback bid.

While Lilly and Morgan were the team’s primary scorers, sophomore Misha Jackson paced the team with 12 rebounds and six steals with her board total representing the high-water by an Emory player and her thefts performance tying for a team season best.

Case led for the majority of the first half and built a 12-point cushion with 7:56 left in the stanza before the Eagles stormed back with a 21-7 run, capped by a basket by freshman Selena Castillo, to take a 35-33 edge with 1:40 left.  The Spartans would use a 5-0 spurt over the remainder of the half to take a 38-35 lead at the intermission.  Iacono rang up 14 points in the first 20 minutes of play to pace Case while Lilly, along with sophomore Emily Hyncik each picked up eight points for Emory.

Emory returns to action on Sunday (Jan. 23) when it plays host to Carnegie Mellon in a 2:00 p.m. start.