NORFOLK, Va. (December 19, 2019) – Mount St. Mary's women's basketball falls to Hampton 68-60 in their first game of the Anne Donovan Classic. Early offensive struggles and turnovers keyed the Pirates wire-to-wire victory. Bridget Birkhead and Aryna Taylor led the Mountaineers with 11 points apiece. Kendall Bresee finished with nine points and 13 rebounds. Ashley Bates led the way for the Pirates finishing with 20 points.

Hampton came out of the gates firing taking an 18-7 lead after the first quarter. Ten of those points came off of Mountaineer turnovers. The Pirates would eventually take a 15-point lead (36-21) into halftime shooting 52% from the field to the Mount's 26%. Hampton held the lead for the entire first half with the largest lead being 19 points.

The Mountaineers offensive continued to struggle scoring only 9 points throughout the third quarter. The Pirates would take a 50-31 lead into the fourth. However, the Mount seemed to find themselves offensively in the fourth quarter yet again, scoring 30 points. Birkhead continued her strong fourth quarters with three straight three-point balls to begin the final frame. With six minutes to go, Jatarrikah Settle sparked a late push with back-to-back layups. Layups from Aryna Taylor and Taylor Addison cut the Pirate's lead to 13 with 3:57 to go. Two layups from Taylor and one from Birkhead had the Mount within eight with a minute to play. Unfortunately, it was too little, too late as Hampton secured the 68-60 victory. The Pirates led for all 60 minutes of the basketball game.

The Mount returns to action tomorrow night for day two of the Anne Donovan Classic against Richmond. The Spiders fell to Old Dominion 73-51 in their first game of the Classic earlier Thursday night. Tip-off is set for 7PM between the Mountaineers and the Spiders.