Box Score

BALTIMORE, MD --- In a game that was closely contested throughout, the Howard women's basketball team narrowly missed out on its third straight victory, falling to the Loyola University Maryland Greyhounds 72-62 Wednesday evening in Reitz Arena.

Sophomore center Victoria Gonzalez played another solid game, scoring 13 of her game-high 18 points in the second half. Gonzalez shot 6-of-10 from the field and 6-of-8 from the line. She also recorded three steals, a block and an assist.

Redshirt freshman Te'Shya Heslip added 14 points, four assists, three rebounds and three steals while junior Cheyenne Brown had 13 points and a team-high five rebounds.

Statistically, both teams performed evenly: Howard shot 43.4 percent (23-of-53) from the floor while Loyola shot 44.9 percent (22-of-49); Loyola only hit two more three pointers (7) than HU (5) in 15 attempts; and both teams went into halftime having scored 29 points after two ties, seven lead changes and no lead larger than six points.

The difference in the game was the Greyhounds' ability to get to free throw line and turn Lady Bison mistakes into opportunities. Loyola nearly doubled Howard's made free throws (21-11) and scored 15 more points off turnovers (34-19)

Loyola would start slowly separate in the second half, using a 12-3 run over the first 5:20 to take a 41-32 lead.

HU and Loyola cancelled each other out over the next three and a half minutes (9-9) before the Lady Bison doubled up the Greyhounds (10-5) over another 3:30 span to cut their deficit to 54-51 with 7:23 remaining.

With Loyola's lead back to eight (60-52) with 4:28 to go, Heslip put together a jumper-steal-layup sequence to cut the lead down to four (60-56) with under four minutes left in the game. However, HU would get no closer as Loyola would outscore Howard 12-6 down the stretch, including a 6-0 run after Heslip's layup.

Howard continues its road trip this Friday, November 22 with a 7:30 pm matchup with Rutgers University.