SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. -- The Mount Holyoke College basketball team delivered an entertaining performance in front of a packed home gym on National Girls & Women in Sports Day Saturday, ultimately falling 70-49 to Coast Guard on Senior Day for three Lyons.
Mount Holyoke (4-21, 0-11 NEWMAC) held the lead for most of the first half and 30-27 at intermission.
Coast Guard (13-12, 5-6 NEWMAC) tied the game for the seventh and final time at 36-36 on a jump shot by Taylor Lynch, and the Bears took the lead for good at 38-36 with a layup by Dorothy Stotts with 4:11 to go in the third quarter. The run expanded to 15-0 over a three-minute span, as the Bears took a 49-36 lead into the final quarter. Seven Bears scored in the third quarter as they took control of the game, with four points apiece by Lynch, Stotts, Elliot Geer, and Mackenzie Hilden.
The Bears continued to pull away from the Lyons in the fourth quarter, adding eight points to their final winning margin. Stotts, Lynch, and Ruby Miller scored five points apiece in the fourth quarter for Coast Guard, while Mount Holyoke junior Hannah Goen (New London, N.H.) scored all seven of her points in the period. Goen added five assists in the game.
Stotts scored a game-high 24 points for Coast Guard, while Lynch added 14 points and eight rebounds. Farrah Peterein had five blocked shots and five assists, and Olivia Wright scored 10 points off the bench.
It was the final game for three graduating Lyons in Alex Twomey (Nutley, N.J.), Taryn White (Alexandria, Va.), and Jane Wu (Ellsworth, Maine). Twomey scored a team-high 18 points with 10 rebounds and three assists, and White totaled 10 points and nine rebounds, and Wu also made the start.
Junior captain Sofia Francisco (Boston, Mass.) had 12 rebounds and two blocked shots.
Twomey kickstarted an outstanding first-half performance by Mount Holyoke with seven points and five rebounds in the opening quarter, which ended with a 15-12 lead for the hosts. White added six points and Francisco had five rebounds as well in the opening period. Stotts scored eight points for Coast Guard.
Twomey knocked down her second three in the second quarter and scored seven more points for the hosts as they maintained their lead. A 3-pointer by Francisco gave the Lyons their largest lead of the game at 29-22 with 1:54 left in the period.
Coast Guard secured a berth in next week's NEWMAC Women's Basketball Tournament, and the seventh seed. The Bears will play at second-seeded Babson on Wednesday.
Mount Holyoke concludes a season of enormous improvement from even a season ago, despite the two squads' identical final win/loss records. The Lyons finished 0-11 in NEWMAC play but reduced their average scoring margin from 36.9 points in 2024-25 to 22.6 this season, and 47.5 in 2023-24. Mount Holyoke's overall average point differential this season improved to -15.0, compared to -22.6 last season and -33.5 two years ago.
