Box Score

BALTIMORE - A back-and-forth game came to a heartbreaking conclusion for Lafayette Saturday afternoon.

Trailing by one with 1.6 seconds left, Loyola senior guard Colleen Marshall converted on a layup straight off an inbounds pass to send the Leopards to a 66-65 defeat. Marshall's layup, the last of her game-high 22 points, canceled out a go-ahead free throw by Jamie O'Hare on the previous possession.

With the loss, Lafayette falls to 2-10 and 0-2 in Patriot League play. Loyola (5-8, 2-0 PL) has won its first two conference games for the first time since joining the league prior to the 2013-14 season.

Harriet Ottewill-Soulsby had a career-day in the defeat, pouring in 21 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the field while also making 7-of-8 free throws. O'Hare added 17 points, while Ashley Lutz contributed a career-high 15 points and a team-best eight rebounds.

Bri Betz-White (13 points) also finished in double figures for the Greyhounds, who defeated defending conference champions American in their Patriot League opener on Dec. 30.

Lafayette got off to a quick start, with a pair of 3-pointers from Lutz and four points from Ottewill-Soulsby helping the visitors to a 12-2 lead after the first 4:05 of play.

Loyola hit only three of its first 12 shots from the field, but the Greyhounds began to catch fire midway through the first. Trailing 14-8, Steph Smith hit a 3-pointer 3:04 left, beginning a 9-2 run to conclude the frame which allowed the hosts to take a 17-16 advantage.

Loyola hit each of its last four shots to conclude the first, and they made nine of their first 10 attempts to begin the following quarter. The last of those makes, a jumper by Betz-White, gave the Leopards their largest deficit of 12 points at 39-27 with 3:18 remaining. That margin was reduced to 41-33 at the end of the second.

Ottewill-Soulsby (13 points), O'Hare (10 points) and Lutz (10 points) were all in double figures heading into the intermission, but the rest of the team combined for zero points on 0-of-4 shooting.

An O'Hare jumper reduced the Greyhound lead down to 44-40, and home team called timeout shortly afterwards with 6:42 on the clock in the third quarter. Loyola responded with a 7-0 run over the next minute and a half to retake a double-digit advantage, and the Greyhounds maintained a 55-48 edge heading into the fourth.

Baskets by O'Hare and Ottewill-Soulsby got the Maroon and White within three at 57-54 with 7:04 remaining, and two Ottewill-Soulsby free throws tied the score at 59-59 with 4:19 to go. Alex Cantwell completed the Lafayette comeback two minutes later, hitting a mid-range jumper to give the visitors their first lead since the opening quarter at 63-61.

The teams traded leads the rest of the way. Sammy Stipa went 1-of-2 from the line to put the Leopards up 64-63 with 1:39 on the clock, and that score held until a Marshall free throw with 12 seconds remaining tied things back up.

O'Hare drove to the basket on the ensuing possession and drew a foul, giving her an opportunity to put Lafayette back in front. After missing the first attempt, she drilled the second to restore the one-point advantage.

Loyola still had a timeout remaining, and that proved key as it allowed the home team to advance the ball past mid-court for the ensuing play. Smith inbounded the ball, and found a streaking Marshall on the right side for the deciding layup.

The Greyhounds snapped a five-game losing streak to the Leopards with today's victory.

Cantwell and Stipa each finished with a team-high five assists for Lafayette, while O'Hare added four. The third of those helpers was the 319th of her career, moving her past Lindsay Myers '06 for fifth all-time in program history.

The Leopards will look to get back in the win column Wednesday night, when Army West Point heads to Kirby Sports Center for a 7 p.m. matchup.

Notes:

Lutz's previous career-high was 14 points, set against the Greyhounds in the first round of last year's Patriot League tournament. She hit 5-of-7 shots from the floor, including 3-of-4 attempts from long distance.

Ottewill-Soulsby finished well ahead of her previous career-high of 13 points in Lafayette's 77-59 win over St. Francis Brooklyn earlier this season. She becomes the first player other than O'Hare to surpass 20 points in a game in 2015-16.

O'Hare now has 978 points during her time on College Hill, 22 shy of 1,000.