SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. -- Elms College came back from a 45-38 deficit with under 2:03 left and went ahead on Sophia Andrade's layup with 11 seconds remaining to defeat the Mount Holyoke basketball team 50-49 on Monday night in Mildred S. Howard Gymnasium.
The visiting Blazers (4-9) avenged the host Lyons' (2-9) victory at Elms in December with the result.
Mount Holyoke started the fourth quarter with a 37-33 lead, and the Lyons led 45-37 with 4:51 remaining. A steal and layup by Elms' Sanaii Diaz with 56 seconds left in the game closed the gap to 45-43, but Mount Holyoke answered with a layup by first-year Anju Manfred (Osaka, Japan) with 50 seconds, prompting an Elms timeout.
Diaz drove, drew a foul and made both free throws with 41 seconds left to make it 47-45. After a pair of missed free throws by the Lyons, Elms again called timeout, and with 29 seconds left, Malinna Figueroa drained a 3-pointer with an assist by Diaz to give Elms its first lead since 29-28.
Mount Holyoke senior Alex Twomey (Nutley, N.J.) answered for the Lyons, driving to the left and hitting a stepback jumper to put the Lyons back on top with 21 seconds left in the game.
With both teams out of timeouts, Diaz inbounded the ball on its offensive baseline after a deflected pass. With Twomey closest to her but with her back turned, Diaz took the opportunity to inbound the ball off of Twomey's back, then collected the ball inbounds, drove baseline and dished to Andrade for to final go-ahead bucket. Twomey collected the inbounds pass and drove the length of the floor before pulling up for a jumpshot at the free-throw line that missed off the front rim.
Figueroa led Elms with 11 points and Devynn Watford added 10 points, both from off the bench. Talia Uribe contributed six points, eight rebounds and four steals.
Twomey led Mount Holyoke with 15 points to go with eight rebounds. Junior Sofia Francisco (Boston, Mass.) had four points and a career-high 19 rebounds, and senior Taryn White (Alexandria, Va.) added six points, eight rebounds, three assists and two steals.
The Lyons will continue non-conference play at Colby-Sawyer Wednesday at 2pm.
