ALLIANCE, Ohio - The Mount Union women's basketball team defeated Allegheny (Pa.) 97-79 in its season opener Tuesday at the McPherson Academic and Athletic Complex. 

Junior Erin White (West Chester/Lakota East) had a double-double with 15 points and a game-high 10 rebounds while senior Cassie Hennessy (Lancaster/Lancaster) and sophomore Rachel Tinkey (Canfield/Canfield) came off the bench with 15 and 13 points respectively to lead the Purple Raiders (1-0). 

Allegheny (0-1) was lead by Candaisy Crawford, who recorded 17 points on the night. 

The Gators took an early lead and had the Raiders trailing by nine points, 22-13 with two minutes left in the first quarter. Mount Union cut the lead to four points with 46 seconds remaining, but went into the second quarter trailing 27-20. 

The Raiders started the second quarter scoring 13 of the first 20 points of the period and took the lead 35-34 on a jumper from Renee DeFord (Casstown/Miami East) at the 4:34 mark.

Mount Union went on a scoring surge with six of its 10 first half three pointers in the final four minutes of the period to lead 55-46 at the break.  

A 10-2 run by the Purple Raiders kicked off the third quarter and put the game away extending the lead to 65-51 lead with 6:17 remaining. Hennessy recorded four quick points, helping extend Mount Union's lead to 20 points going into the fourth quarter. 

The Purple Raiders travel to Rochester, N.Y. to play No. 5 ranked Scranton (Pa.) on Friday, Nov. 18 at 3 p.m. in the Chuck Resler Invitational Tournament at the University of Rochester.