EMMITSBURG, Md. – Tara Lonergan (Rockville Centre, N.Y./South Side) made the most of her second start of the season, posting 12 points, seven rebounds and three blocks to lift Mount St. Mary's past Bucknell 58-46 in non-conference women's basketball action on Saturday.

Lonergan, who found out this morning that she would be starting in place of Rachel Mathews (Midlothian, Va./Midlothian), scored seven of her 12 points during a 15-2 run in the first half to give the Mount (6-6) the lead for good. The junior, who made her first collegiate start last New Year's Eve at San Francisco, shot 5 of 8 from the floor and 2 of 3 from the foul line to notch a season-high 12 points.

Sydney Henderson (Mechanicsville, Va./Atlee) added 11 points and Kayla Grossett (Toronto, Canada/David And Mary Thompson C.I.) chipped in 10 points off the bench.

Rachel Voss paced the Bison (2-12) with 13 points and Alyssa Dunn posted 11 points in the loss.

Looking to end 2011 on a high note, Mount St. Mary's rallied from an early deficit and then pulled away in the second half to end a two-game losing streak and earned its second-straight win on New Year's Eve after defeating the Dons 79-77 last year in overtime.

After Bucknell started the game with six-consecutive points, Lonergan sparked a 15-2 run to give the Mountaineers the lead for good.

Trailing 6-0, Lonergan got Mount St. Mary's on the scoreboard with a layup at 13:46. After Dunn answered with a basket in the paint at 12:31, the Mount scored the next 13 points.

Jessie Kaufman (Damascus, Md./Damascus) started the run with a jumper at the 12-minute mark before Selina Mann (Gainesville, Va./Battlefield) scored in the paint at 11:34. Lonergan then gave the Mountaineers the lead it would relinquish on a traditional 3-point play at 10:40 at 9-8. Henderson hit a layup at 9:23 and Kaufman nailed a jumper at 8:08 to cap the run and give Mount St. Mary's a 15-8 advantage. The two teams battled back and forth in the final eight minutes of the half and the Mount went into the locker room with a 25-20 lead.

Ashley Christie (Miamisburg, Ohio/Archbishop Alter) opened the scoring in the second half with a layup 25 seconds into the stanza before Mann nailed a trey at 19:02 to hand the Mountaineers a 30-20 lead.

Bucknell then scored the next five points only to see the Mount answer with 11 of the next 16 points to restore a double-digit margin at 41-31 with 12:01 on the clock. The Mount had five different players score during that stretch.

The Bison made one last run and cut the margin to five points with 8:53 left, but Mount St. Mary's responded with a 9-0 run fueled by four points from Jen Carney (Drexel Hills, Pa./Archbishop Carroll) and Bucknell could not cut it to single digits the rest of the afternoon.

Mann finished the game with seven points, six rebounds and five assists.

Mount St. Mary's concludes its non-conference slate against at home against Howard on Tuesday. Game time is 7 p.m.