The Mars Hill women's basketball team opened the game on a 21-6 run and never looked back as the Lions defeated Belmont Abbey 72-55 this afternoon in the final game before the Christmas break. Mars Hill, which is coached by Sarah Jansen, an Abbey assistant coach the past five seasons, moves to 3-5, while the Crusaders drop to 3-3.

Mars Hill shot 45.6 percent as Armeka Booker led all players with 19 points, including the first eight points of the game. Ansley Ricker added 14 and Erica Warren added ten.

Belmont Abbey was led by Kelsey Long's 16 points, while Melisa Foures added 13 as the Crusaders shot 37 percent from the floor. Candace Fox handed out six assists and freshman Morgan Midkiff added four.

Mars Hill jumped out to a 21-6 lead in the first 12 and-a-half minutes. The Abbey clawed back and closed the lead down to eight on a Long three-pointer with 41 seconds left, but Warren closed the half with a layup with 18 seconds left to give Mars Hill a ten point lead, 29-19, at the break.

Caitlyn Ranson scored the first bucket of the second half just 32 seconds in to cut the deficit back to eight, but the Abbey would not get the Mars Hill lead down to single digits again as the Lions bolted out to a 23-10 run over the next nine minutes to move their lead to 23 points, the highest of the game, at 54-31 with 9:57 to go.

The Crusaders could only chop the lead down to as few as 13 on a pair of Long free throws with 2:13 to play, as the Abbey only netted just two free throws in the final two minutes, as Mars Hill scored six of the game's final eight points to notch the win.