Box Score
(Peru, Neb.) - On Thursday evening the Peru State Bobcats women's basketball team fell to the Mount Mercy Mustangs 74-58. Peru State falls to 8-10 overall and 3-6 in conference play. Mount Mercy improves to 9-12 overall and 6-4 in conference play.
 
Early in the first quarter the game was tied at 6-6 before Mount Mercy would go on an 18-2 run to close out the first quarter putting the Mustangs up 24-8. In the second quarter the Mustangs kept it rolling as they would hold the Bobcats to nine points for the quarter. The Mustangs would take a 40-17 lead into the break.
 
In the third quarter The Mustangs raced out to an 11-2 run putting them up 52-19 midway through the third. The 33-point lead would be the Mustangs largest in the game with 4:49 to go in the third quarter. Late in third quarter the Bobcats would make a run of their own scoring 11 straight points cutting the lead to 21 before the start of the fourth quarter.
 
 
 
In the fourth quarter the Mustangs went on another 7-0 run to make the score 65-38 with about six minutes and change to play. The Bobcats had one last 10-0 run in them but it was too little too late as they could never get within more than 15 of the Mustangs.
 
Mount Mercy won the game 74-58. They were led by point guard Annika Headington who had a double-double for the Mustangs scoring 11 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. In addition, she added six assists. Five players for the Mustangs reached double figures.
 
Here is what Peru State head coach Ian Holleran said about the Bobcats performance.
 
"I thought Mount Mercy played really well, I give their players and staff a lot of credit, we had a great week of practice, so it was disappointing the way we started," said Holleran. "I thought we did some good things in the second half, but unfortunately was not enough to get the job done. This group will continue to work hard and learn from this game and we are excited for another opportunity compete on Saturday."
 
The Bobcats struggled to get the ball through the basket as they finished 29-of-62 from the field shooting 29.4%. They did not find much luck from the three-point line as the Bobcats were 6-of-22 and 27.3% from beyond the arc.
 
"That was honestly probably the lowest shooting percentage we had all season, we are a much better than we showed last night," Holleran said. "When shots aren't falling, we need to be able to get stops on the defensive end and unfortunately last night we were not able to do that consistently, I am confident we will bounce back from this and will have a much better showing Saturday."
 
Mount Mercy shot the ball well as they were 29-of-62 from the field shooting 46.8%. The Mustangs shot 7-of-17 from beyond the arc shooting 41.2%.
 
Both teams shot poorly from the charity stripe as the Bobcats were 12-of-23 from the line converting only 52.2% of their free throw attempts. The Mustangs were not much better as they were 9-of-16 from the line and shot 56.3%.
 
Leading the way for the Bobcats was guard Natasha Deal (Winnebago) who scored 13 points along with four rebounds and two assists. Guards Hailey Ingram (Omaha) and Samantha Stewart (Mount Ayr, Iowa) were the only other two 'Cats in double-figures with 12 and 11 points respectively.
 
Next up for the Bobcats is a road trip to Olathe, Kan., to take on the MidAmerica Nazarene Pioneers at 2 p.m. on Saturday, January 22.