ALLIANCE, Ohio – For the second straight night, the Mount Union women's basketball team saw a late comeback come up short falling to John Carroll, 84-83 in an Ohio Athletic Conference game Saturday in Timken Gymnasium.

The Purple Raiders (0-4, 0-4 OAC) got a career-best 24 points from sophomore Kelsie Glass (Green), seniors Elena Rauhe (Seven Hills / Padua Franciscan) and Brianna Gassman (Minerva) had 18 and 12 respectively while sophomore Emma Cannon (Dalton) had a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds.

Nicole Heffington had a game-high 30 points to lead John Carroll (4-0, 4-0 OAC).

The Blue Streaks never trailed in the game and jumped out to a 17-6 lead and finished the first quarter with a 23-12 lead. Mount Union rallied in the second quarter opening the period on a 14-7 run to cut the deficit to 30-26 when Glass hit a three-pointer with 6:39 remaining in the half. The Raiders would trail 48-42 at the break.

Gassman scored six of the first eight points of the third quarter as Mount Union got to within a bucket, 50-48, but John Carroll answered with a 15-3 run to go up 65-51 with just under three minutes left in the period. The Blue Streaks led 72-62 heading into the final 10 minutes.

John Carroll pushed the lead out to 77-64 with 7:32 to play before Mount Union went on a furious 11-0 run to get the score to 77-75 with 4:06 left. A John Carroll turnover and a Mount Union missed basket followed before Heffington hit a three-pointer to give the Blue Streaks an 80-75 lead with 2:51 to play. Mount Union would score eight of the next 12 points to trail 83-84 with four seconds left and in-bounding the ball in front of its own bench. A three-pointer by Rauhe at the buzzer was short.   

Mount Union plays Otterbein next weekend in a two-game series, hosting the Cardinals in Alliance, Fri., Feb. 5 at 7 p.m. then playing in Westerville, Sat. Feb. 6 at 6 p.m.