Box Score

As the snow fell outside Memorial Hall, the Muhlenberg women's basketball team had to find a way to heat up its gym.

The three-point bombers would do just that, knocking down eight of their 15 attempts from deep in a 79-65 win over Ursinus. This win was the Mules' seventh straight (six of them coming in 2015) and improved them to 10-5 and 9-2 in the Centennial Conference.

"I think we just came back for the new year excited and pumped and now everything is flowing. We got those first two big wins after break, and we've kept the momentum going," senior guard Abby Stenger said.

Stenger was the catalyst for a 14-3 run in the first half. She hit back-to-back threes that put the Mules up 15 at 26-11 midway through the first frame.  Also knocking down triples for Muhlenberg were Hannah Rush, Nicole Pepe, Christina Manning and Caroline Barberi, who also hit a pair.

"As a shooter, you always want to keep shooting. Some nights you hit them quickly like that, and some nights it's more sporadic. You just have to keep shooting," Stenger (pictured left) said.

Leanna Tallamy continued her dominance in 2015, as her streak of consecutive games with a double-double reached double digits. The senior forward and back-to-back reigning CC player of the week needed little time to get there, putting up 10 points and 10 rebounds in just 12 minutes of play in the first half.  She finished with 17 points on 8-for-15 shooting and 14 boards.

"Leanna is just an awesome player. Starting last year she really came out of her shell, and this year we rely on her even more to be our leading scorer and our best player on the team," Stenger said.

Senior guard Laura Gregory (pictured above) narrowly missed joining Tallamy in the double-double club with nine points and a career-high 11 rebounds.

Muhlenberg's defense turned up the heat on the Bears (6-10, 5-5) as well, holding the CC foe to 29.6 percent shooting from the field in the first half and 34.8 overall.   

Fourteen different Mules scored in the game. Joining Tallamy in double figures was sophomore Michelle Poole, who was a perfect 5-for-5 from the line for 10 points. Poole and Stenger are part of an energetic and explosive second team along with senior guard Janelle Fleet (eight points, four assists), sophomore forward Maggie Zerbe (eight rebounds) and Barberi, which has given Muhlenberg one of the deepest rosters in the CC.

"We just try to keep the energy up. We don't want any drop off from our starters to our bench. All of us are experienced players, so we just want to keep the intensity up," Stenger said.

As one of seven seniors on the team, Stenger and the rest of the group are making the most of their last semester as Mules.

 "Since we were freshman we've been looking forward to this moment in our senior year and to be the leaders of the team. It's really exciting and I can't wait to see what more we can do," Stenger said.