Women's Basketball | 1/4/2013 9:47:00 PM

Box Score FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. -- The Methodist women's basketball team pushed its win streak to seven games by holding off N.C. Wesleyan, 63-56, on Friday night at the Riddle Center.
 
The Monarchs, who led by as many as 17 in the first half and did not allow the Battling Bishops to get on the scoreboard until nearly six minutes had elapsed, moved to 7-2 on the season and 3-0 in the USA South. N.C. Wesleyan fell to 3-7 overall and 2-1 in the USA South.
 
Methodist raced out to a 12-0 lead 5:09 into the contest behind six early points from Christina Schrader before Tiffany Bell finally got NCWC on the scoreboard with a trey at the 14:18 mark. Bell added a pair of free throws to make it a 12-5 ballgame before the Monarchs reeled off a 10-2 scoring run to go up 15 (22-7) with 10:03 left in the half.
 
A pair of free throws by Emily Huneycutt gave the Monarchs a 26-9 lead with 7:41 left to play before the Battling Bishops began chipping away at the lead. A layup by Samantha Urquhart made it 26-11 in favor of MU and triggered a 13-4 spurt that pulled NCWC within eight (30-22) with 27 seconds to play in the half. A Brianna Robinson layup with nine seconds left in the half accounted for Methodists' 32-22 lead at the break.
 
The Battling Bishops, who shot just 9-of-30 (.300) in the first half, and turned the ball over 13 times in the period, never really threatened in the second half as MU held a double-digit lead for the vast majority of the stanza.  
 
For the game, MU finished at 45.5 percent shooting (20-44) from the field and made good on 22-of-33 foul shots (.667). NCWC shot 32.3 percent (20-62) for the game, including making just 6-of-20 three-point attempts. Methodist also held a 38-32 edge on the boards.
 
Robinson led all scorers with 17 points and added nine rebounds. T.T. Taylor and Schrader finished with 16 points apiece and Taylor grabbed eight boards.
 
Bell led the Battling Bishops with 11 points and Monet Edwards chipped in nine. Samantha Urquhart finished with seven points and a game-high 10 rebounds.
 
The Monarchs are back in action tomorrow when they host Christopher Newport at 2:00 pm.