EMMITSBURG, Md. – Sacred Heart defeated Mount St. Mary's 71-56 in Northeast Conference (NEC) women's basketball action on Saturday.

Leah Westbrooks paced the Mount (7-8, 2-4 NEC) with 12 points and six rebounds. Sandra Andresson (Tallinn, Estonia/Audentes School) and Mary Dunn (Whippany, N.J./Morris Catholic) each added 11 points. Dunn picked up most of her points at the charity stripe, hitting 9 of 12 at the line in the loss.

Brianna Gauthier (Severna Park, Md./St. Mary's) finished with eight points and one assists. The senior needs 10 helpers to crack the Top-10 on the program's all-time list and three points to move into 25th place on the all-time points list. Hassanah Oliver (Hillside, N.J./Hillside) recorded eight points, three rebounds, three assists and three steals.

Kaitlin Sowinski led the Pioneers (10-7, 7-0 NEC) with 21 points, five rebounds and three blocks while Alisa Apo registered 18 points and seven assists in the winning effort.

Sacred Heart took the lead from the tip and never looked back to sweep the season series against the Mountaineers for the seventh time in the last eight campaigns. Last season, the Mount won the lone meeting 74-63 in Emmitsburg.

Sowinski gave the Pioneers the lead on a free throw 23 seconds into the game and then scored in the paint at 18:20 for a 3-0 advantage. Hassanah Oliver (Hillside, N.J./Hillside) put Mount St. Mary's on the scoreboard with a jumper at 17:50. The two teams traded baskets for the next 12 minutes with Sacred Heart taking as large as a five-point lead. In that stretch, the Mount cut the deficit to one point two times and to two points eight times.

However after Westbrooks trimmed the margin to 25-22 with 5:31 on the clock, Sacred Heart closed the half on an 8-4 run to go into the locker room with a 33-26 advantage. Maureen Reilly had four points during the run for the Pioneers.

The Mountaineers continued to stay within striking distance until Westbrooks picked up her fourth foul with 18:36 remaining. Sacred Heart then went on a 13-3 over the next four minutes to take a 51-35 leads thanks to eight points from Sowinski and five from Stephanie Ryan. Mount St. Mary's cut the margin to 13 points on five occasions, but could get no closer the rest of the way.

Katelyn Nowacki (Toledo, Ohio/Central Catholic) notched a career-high three points and nine minutes for the Mount.

Mount St. Mary's returns to action on Monday against Long Island at Knott Arena. Game time is 7 p.m.