Women's Basketball | 2/17/2013 8:03:00 PM

Box Score FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. -- The Methodist women's basketball team fell, 68-54, to Maryville College on Sunday afternoon at the Riddle Center.
 
The Monarchs (16-9, 11-7) nearly dug themselves out of a 17-point hole at halftime, but MC (22-3, 16-2) held on for the win.
 
After going into the half trailing 40-23, the Monarchs forced the Scots into turnovers on six of their first nine possessions of the second half in closing the gap to five points (42-37) on a Courtney Woods three with 14:58 on the clock. Emliy Huneycutt scored five points during the 14-2 run and T.T. Taylor added four.
 
The Monarchs trailed by six (46-40) several minutes later when Alex Bond knocked down a pair of buckers and Kiera Payne added a layup as MC doubled its lead to 12 points (52-40) with 10:44 to play. Methodist managed to trim its deficit to single digits (54-46) one last time before MC began to pull way for its fourth straight win and claim a share of the regular season championship.
 
The Scots used a 15-5 run in the first half to extend an early four-point lead (19-15) to a 14-point advantage (34-20) with 4:05 to play. Kiera Payne scored six points during the run.
 
The Monarchs finished the game at 31.8 percent shooting (21-66), while Maryville shot 58.8 percent (30-51) for the game, including 77.8 percent (14-18) in the second half. The Scots also outrebounded Methodist, 42-27. Maryville did turn the ball over 26 times to just 16 for the Monarchs.
 
Christina Schrader, one of six Monarchs playing their final game in the Riddle Center, led MU with 15 points on 7-of-10 shooting. Emily Huneycutt added 13 points. Brianna Robinson pulled down a team-best eight rebounds and added four steals. Joining Huneycutt, Schrader and Robinson in their final game at the Riddle center were T.T. Taylor, Iesha Hayes and Cynthia Jones.
 
Payne led MC with a game-high 18 points and Janell Menard chipped in 17 points. Tayler Smith posted a double-double of 10- points and 11 rebounds and Mackenzie Puckett had seven points, nine rebounds and four blocks.
 
Methodist is back in action on Friday when it opens play in the USA South Tournament. The fifth-seeded Monarchs will take on fourth-seeded N.C. Wesleyan beginning at 1:00 pm at the Crown Center Arena here in Fayetteville.