Box Score | Video Recap

The Muhlenberg women's basketball team worked hard to earn a top-10 national ranking and win its first nine games. To win their 10th, the Mules needed to work a little overtime.

Muhlenberg came back from an 11-point fourth-quarter deficit on the road to defeat Johns Hopkins, 70-65 in overtime, and improve to 10-0 for the fourth time in program history. 

The Mules also set a school record by reaching the 70-point mark for the 10th straight game to open the season and reached double digits in wins for the 24th straight season - a College record for any sport.

Sophomore Rachel Plotke led four Muhlenberg players in double figures with 15 points, while classmate Christina Manning netted 14. Sophomore Brandi Vallely notched her seventh double-double of the season with 12 points and 10 rebounds to go along with five assists and three steals.

Junior Maggie Zerbe scored a career-high 10 points and added six rebounds and four blocked shots. Senior Christina Santone narrowly missed a double-double of her own, finishing with nine points, 10 rebounds and five blocks.

Down 53-42 at the start of the fourth quarter, the Mules (10-0, 4-0) got five points from Manning (pictured above)  on back-to-back possessions to cut the deficit to six. Manning hit a three with 4:32 left to bring Muhlenberg to within four, but the Blue Jays (3-8, 1-4) scored the next four points to open up an eight-point lead, 60-52, with 3:46 left.

The Mules did not allow a point the rest of the quarter, ending on an 8-0 run to force overtime. Plotke and Vallely each made a pair of free throws sandwiched in between two baskets by Zerbe, the second with 39 ticks on the clock to tie the game at 60. After a pair of Blue Jay misses, a last-second three-point attempt by Muhlenberg rimmed out.

In the overtime, Zerbe (pictured at left) gave the Mules an early lead, which Hopkins equalized. With 2:49 left, Santone hit a baseline jumper with the shot clock winding down to put Muhlenberg ahead for good at 64-62.

Plotke drove the lane for a lefty layup to make it 66-63 with 2:13 left. The Blue Jays had a chance to tie with a three-point play a minute later but missed the free throw. Santone's layup off a pass from Vallely with 44.2 seconds showing extended the lead to 68-65, and Vallely's two free throws after two Hopkins misses provided the final margin.

Muhlenberg led 20-16 after the first quarter, but Hopkins came back to take a seven-point lead with a minute to play in the half. Two threes by Plotke sent the teams into the locker room separated by just a point, with the Mules facing their first halftime deficit of the season.

The Blue Jays, who came in averaging just 47.7 points per game, outscored the Mules 20-10 in the third quarter to build their lead to 11.