The Muhlenberg women's basketball team fell in the final seconds at Johns Hopkins, 54-53.

The Mules (1-2, 0-1) trailed the Blue Jays (3-1, 1-0), who earned an NCAA Tournament bid last year and received 18 votes in the D3hoops.com preseason poll, by as many as nine points in the second quarter but remained in striking distance for the whole game. They finally caught up three minutes into the fourth quarter when graduate student Margaux Eripret made a jumper to tie the score at 43-43.

Hopkins reclaimed a five-point lead, at 53-48, with under two minutes to play, but Muhlenberg came back again. Sophomore Ava Connolly made one free throw and sophomore Rachel Saxton made two to set the score at 53-51 and set the stage for a wild final minute.

Connolly stole the inbounds pass following Saxton's second free throw, but the Mules missed a potential go-ahead three-pointer seconds later. The Blue Jays missed two free throws with 30.7 seconds left, and - after a Muhlenberg turnover - missed two more with 17.3 ticks on the clock.

After getting the rebound, the Mules came up short on a three-point attempt, but sophomore Jenna Stockfeder leaped out of bounds to tap the ball back under the basket to a wide-open Connolly, who made the layup to tie the score at 53-all with 6.9 seconds remaining.

Johns Hopkins drew a foul and made the first of two free throws with 3.9 seconds left. Muhlenberg rebounded the second, called a timeout and inbounded the ball in front of its bench with 1.3 seconds showing. But the Mules could not get off a shot before time expired.

Connolly led Muhlenberg with 11 points, while Eripret finished with 10. The Mules were outrebounded 46-28 but forced 24 turnovers while committing only eight themselves. Saxton (pictured above) led the defense with 4 steals, while Connolly, Eripret and sophomore Emily Unger had 3 apiece.