The 23rd ranked Saint Vincent women's basketball team overcame a 14-point halftime deficit to send the game into overtime, but the Bearcats were downed 68-66 by second-ranked Thomas More College on a lay up with under two seconds left in the extra session.

The Bearcats trailed by five points, 63-58, with just over a minute left in the second half, before junior guard Emily Fenton hit a long three-pointer with nine seconds left to tie the game at 64 and send the game into overtime.  The visiting Saints held SVC without a field goal in overtime, however, and closed out the win on a Nicole Dickman lay up with just two seconds left in the extra session.

Devin McGrath led the Bearcats, turning in a double-double with a career-high 26 points along with 10 rebounds.  She was one of two SVC players to score in double figures, as reigning PAC Player of the Week Brittany Sedlock added 19 points.

After jumping out to a 7-6 lead on a McGrath three-pointer at the 16:45 mark of the first half, the Bearcats went cold while Thomas More heated up, as the Saints nailed four three-pointers in a five-minute span to cap off a 13-2 run and go ahead 19-9 with 11:44 left in the opening frame.

A jumper from Savannah Hardy pulled the Bearcats to within seven, 22-15, with 9:13 left in the half, but the Saints would go on another lengthy run, out-scoring SVC 19-12 over the final eight minutes of the first frame to take a 41-27 lead into the intermission.

Over the first 20 minutes, Saint Vincent shot just 33 percent from the field (11-for-33), while the Bearcats were out-rebounded 19-12.  Conversely, Thomas More's offense sizzled, as the Saints shot a blistering 71 percent (15-for-21), and 6-for-9 from behind the three-point line.

Thomas More scored the first two points of the second half to go in front 43-27, but the Bearcats would regroup in a big way.  McGrath scored five points in a 40-second span, capped off with a traditional three-point play with 15:30 remaining to pull SVC to cap off a 10-2 run and pull SVC to within single-digits at 45-37.

Ninety seconds later, Sedlock scored on back-to-back possessions to make the score 49-43 with 12:58 to go, before McGrath's third trey of the evening pulled the Bearcats to within three, 49-46, with 12:32 left to play.

Thomas More would out-score Saint Vincent 6-2 over the next three minutes to go up 55-48, but Saint Vincent again charged back, with Sedlock capping off an 8-0 run to give the Bearcats a 56-55 lead with 5:56 left in regulation.

The back-and-forth theme continued down the stretch, with Thomas More going in front 63-57 with 2:20 remaining.  Trailing 63-59 with under a minute left, SVC was forced to foul, and it paid off, as the Saints made just one of three attempts from the charity stripe over the span.  Meanwhile, a pair of free throws from Melissa Mansur, followed by another bucket from McGrath, would cut the SVC deficit to 64-61 with 14 seconds left.  

Off of a missed Thomas More foul shot with 12 seconds left, McGrath snared the rebound and fired a baseball pass to half court to Fenton, who took two dribbles and buried a straight away three to tie the game at 64.  The Saints were unable to muster offense on the ensuing possession, and the game went into overtime as the Bearcats out-scored the visitors 37-23 over the second frame.

Thomas More would score the first two points 12 seconds into the extra session, before a pair of Sedlock free throws with 4:07 left would again tie the game at 68.  Both teams then went cold, and Thomas More got the basketball with 25 seconds left for what would be the final possession of the game.  With time winding down, Dickman gathered an offensive rebound right under the bucket, and put a lay up in over two SVC defenders to seal the 68-66 victory.

The Bearcats managed to force 25 Thomas More turnovers, with Mansur posting four of SVC's 18 steals, but Thomas More shot a strong 57 percent (27-for-47) from the field, compared to a 37.1 percent mark (26-for-70) from the Bearcats.

Thomas More was led on the scoresheet by Dickman, who scored 19 points with a team-high six rebounds.  Chelsea Tolliver and Amy Stultz each added 14 points, with the latter going 3-for-4 from long range.

The defeat snapped the Bearcats' eight-game winning streak, dropping their overall record to 14-2 and their PAC mark to 7-1.  The Saints remain undefeated on the season, with a 16-0 overall mark and an 8-0 conference mark.

The Bearcats return to action on Saturday afternoon, hosting PAC rival Thiel College at 4pm in the Carey Center.