On a day when its offense struggled, the Muhlenberg women's basketball team turned to its defense to pick up a big Centennial Conference road win.

The Mules (8-9, 6-6) allowed only four second-half field goals – one of them a meaningless three with 1.5 seconds left – to overcome a nine-point deficit and defeat Dickinson, 44-40.

The win put Muhlenberg into a tie in the loss column with the Red Devils (9-9, 7-6) for the fifth and final CC playoff spot. The Mules are a game behind fourth-place Swarthmore and two behind third-place Johns Hopkins; they face both teams in the next week.

Senior Emily O'Mahoney, sophomore Margaux Eripret and freshman Sara Peretti each scored 10 points for the Mules, who had only won one game when scoring fewer than 45 points in the last 20 seasons.

Dickinson led 24-19 at halftime and scored the first four points of the second half to open up its biggest lead, 28-19, with 4:25 left in the third quarter.

Muhlenberg scored the last four points of the quarter to close to within three, then tied the score on a three from the wing by sophomore Tara Szawaluk 33 seconds into the final quarter.

The Red Devils responded with an immediate three of their own, but the Mules tightened their defense. Dickinson missed its next 12 field-goal attempts.

For the game, Dickinson shot just 26.0 percent from the field against a Muhlenberg defense that came in 15th in Division III in field-goal percentage defense.

A layup by Peretti (pictured above) gave the Mules the lead for good at 37-35 with 5:23 left, and senior Madison Kirchofer went the length of the court after grabbing a defensive rebound on the next possession.

It was still 39-35 entering the final minute. One free throw by Muhlenberg and two by Dickinson made it 40-37, and on the next Mule possession, senior Ashley Polera grabbed an offensive rebound, forcing Dickinson to foul.

Two free throws by Eripret with 28.4 seconds left and two more by Polera with 17.7 showing iced the win.

Peretti finished with 9 rebounds, just missing a double-double. Sophomore Mikaela McGarvey dished out a career-high 5 assists and pulled down 7 boards.