Belmont Abbey freshman guard Morgan Midkiff scored a career-high 26 points and junior guard Kelsey Long added 24 as the Crusaders women's basketball team snapped a two-game losing streak with an easy 94-46 Conference Carolinas win over the visiting Converse College Valkyries this evening at the Wheeler Center. The victory evens the overall ledger at 4-4 while improving to 3-1 in league play, while Converse remains winless at 0-7 overall and 0-4 in Conference Carolinas.

The Crusaders 94 points scored are the most in a game since February 26, 2005 when the Abbey totaled 95 in a 15-point home win over Pfeiffer. It is the first time eclipsing the 90 point plateau since February 14, 2009, a 91-72 win over Erskine.

After Converse bolted out to a 9-3 lead, the Abbey scored 14 of the next 16 points to claim a lead it would never lose. Leading by 11 with 5:23 to go in the first, the Crusaders closed the half on a 9-2 run to carry a 44-26 lead into the break. The Abbey shot 42 percent in the first half and held Converse to a 40 percent effort, but the Valkyries were undone by 18 first half turnovers. They finished with 28 for the game.

Belmont Abbey opened the second half on a 14-2 run to build its lead to 28 with just under seven minutes gone by. The Crusaders closed the game on a 17-1 jaunt, ending with a Jenika Sanchez jumper with 40 seconds left to move the lead to 48 points, which was the final.

Midkiff led all scorers with 26 points on nine of 18 shooting from the floor to go along with a pair of rebounds, three assists and five steals in 31 minutes. Long, whose 24 points is five shy of her career-high, netted nine of 16 shots, including five of ten from three-point range, to go along with five assists and four steals in 30 minutes. Candace Fox added nine points and five assists. 23 of the Abbey's 33 baskets were assisted. Every available player saw action and all but two scored. The Crusaders shot 45.2 percent (33-73) from the floor and connected on 12 of 32 from three-point range (37.5 percent). Melisa Foures tied for the game-high with seven rebounds as the Abbey dominated the glass by a 51-35 count.