BEREA, Ohio—The Mount Union women's basketball team fell just short of an upset bid of the No. 21 nationally ranked Baldwin Wallace Yellow Jackets in Ohio Athletic Conference play Tuesday night losing 54-52.
 
Mount Union (7-2, 0-1 OAC) was led by Mckayla Dunkle (Cadiz / Harrison Central) and Bre McCabe (Massillon / Tuslaw) with 12 and 11 points respectively. Elizabeth Mason (Alliance / Marlington) ended the night with 12 rebounds for the Purple Raiders.
 
Baldwin Wallace (4-2, 1-0 OAC) was led by Laura McCoy with 18 points.
 
Baldwin Wallace took an early 5-2 lead but a 4-0 run from Mount Union gave them their first lead of the night at 6-5. Mount Union extended its lead out to 10-7 on a jumper from McCabe with 4:49 remaining in the first quarter. Both team's defenses took over the last half of the quarter as the quarter ended in a tie at 13.
 
The defense carried into the second quarter as both teams scored just two points each over the first 6:30. A three from Abby Muckleroy (Canfield) and a layup from Cheslea Evanich (Alliance / Marlington) gave Mount Union a 20-19 lead with 3:42 remaining. From there Baldwin Wallace outscored Mount Union 8-4 as they took a 27-24 lead into the halftime break.
 
Mount Union came out of the half and closed the lead down to one at 31-30 with 5:32 left in the quarter but a 12-2 run for Baldwin Wallace closed out the quarter as Mount Union trailed 43-32.
 
 Mount Union opened the fourth quarter on a 14-1 run as Kayla Ferancy (Amherst / Amherst Steele) scored seven points in the run to take a 46-44 lead with six minutes remaining in the game. Baldwin Wallace pushed the lead back out to 51-46 but Mount Union battled back to close within two with 20 seconds left but couldn't get closer as Baldwin Wallace hit two free throws to keep the lead up by two scores.
 
Mount Union will return home on Saturday taking on Otterbein at 6 pm in another OAC match up.