EMMITSBURG, Md. – Monmouth downed Mount St. Mary's 52-49 in Northeast Conference (NEC) women's basketball action on Saturday.

Leah Westbrooks (Dublin, Ireland/Holy Faith Secondary School) notched her third career-double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds for the Mount (7-10, 2-6 NEC) while Brianna Gauthier (Severna Park, Md./St. Mary's) led all-scorers with 15 points in the loss.

Alexis Scott paced the Hawks (9-9, 4-4 NEC) with 14 points while Jennifer Bender and LaKia Barber each added 12 points in the winning effort.

Monmouth took the lead with 5:38 remaining it would not relinquish and held on to earn its fourth-straight league win.

After Mount St. Mary's rallied from a four-point deficit thanks to a Westbrooks layup and two free throws by Shanda Anderson (Egg Harbor, N.J./Egg Harbor Township) to tie the game at 41 with 5:57 on the clock, Alexis Canady nailed a 3-pointer 19 seconds later to give the Hawks the lead for good.

Hassanah Oliver (Hillside, N.J./Hillside), who finished with nine points, nailed two free throws at 4:35 to trim the margin to one point with 4:35 left before Barber answered by scoring in the paint at 3:24. Oliver then hit the backend of two free throws, but Canady converted both of her charity tosses to give Monmouth a four-point edge.

Gauthier momentarily cut the deficit to two points on two free throws with 57 ticks on the clock before Canady hit her next four free throws for a 52-46 advantage with 37 seconds remaining. Gauthier gave the Mountaineers one more gasp by nailing a 3-pointer with 2.5 seconds left, but Monmouth ran out the clock to come away with its second-straight win at Knott Arena.

The game between the NEC's top-two scoring defenses started out sluggish with Mount St. Mary's taking a 5-2 edge with six minutes and 10 seconds into the contest. Bender got the scoring started on a jumper 71 seconds into the game. Westbrooks then converted a traditional 3-point play at 18:23 to hand the Mount a 3-2 margin. Oliver then nailed a jumper at 13:50 to hand the Mountaineers its largest lead at 5-2.

Sparked by four points from Barber, Monmouth went on a 10-2 run to grab a 12-7 lead with 8:59 left in the first half. Mount St. Mary's then answered to score the next five points to take a 13-12 edge with 6:39 on the clock. After the two teams traded baskets, the Hawks closed the stanza on a 9-2 run thanks to five points from Bender and four points from Scott for a 23-17 advantage going into the locker room.

Monmouth started the second half with five-straight points sparked by two free throws by Barber and a traditional 3-point play by Bender to give the Hawks its biggest lead at 28-17 with 19:02 remaining. The Mount fought back to tie the game at 41 thanks to a 24-13 run over the next 13 minutes. Gauthier fueled the six after hitting six free throws, but then Monmouth took the lead it would not relinquish on Canady's 3-pointer.

Mount St. Mary's converted 22 of 26 from the free throw line in the game while the Hawks were 13-for-13 from the charity stripe.

Gauthier was perfect for the afternoon, connecting on 3 of 3 shots from the field, 1 of 1 from behind the arc and 8 of 8 from the free throw line. With her 15 points, the senior moved into 24th place on the program's all-time career points list with 941 points.

The Mount returns to action by concluding a five-game homestand against Central Connecticut State on Monday. Game time is 7 p.m.