ALLIANCE, Ohio -- The nationally ranked Mount Union women's basketball team set an early tone with its defense and then poured on the offense for a 77-52 victory over Ohio Athletic Conference opponent Capital on Saturday at the McPherson Academic and Athletic Complex.
Rosa LaMattina (Westlake/Westlake) finished with 19 points and six rebounds while Kori Wiedt (North Olmsted/North Olmsted) contributed 18 points and five assists for the Purple Raiders, who took a 40-17 lead into halftime.
Mount Union forced four turnovers -- including three shot-clock violations -- during Capital's first five possessions and took an early 11-2 lead.
During the first half, the Raiders had consecutive-point runs of six, seven, eight and nine points and led by as many as 24. LaMattina, who buried three 3-pointers, and Wiedt led the opening-half attack with 11 and 10 points, respectively.
In the second half, Mount Union's grew to 27 points at 46-19 before Capital found a way to trim it to nine. Hilary Kuhns's six points during a 17-2 Crusader rally helped close the gap to 54-45 with 9:15 remaining.
The Raiders then found a way to hold off the Capital offense long enough before exploding for a decisive 14-0 run, which included four points each from LaMattina, Katie Crider (Brunswick/Brunswick) and Brittany Kilgore (Northfield/Nordonia).
In total, Kilgore contributed 12 points for Mount Union. Tierney Allen (Alliance/Alliance) and Amanda Rose (Uniontown/Green) grabbed eight and six rebounds, respectively.
As a team, Mount Union shot 47.4 percent for the game and outrebounded the Crusaders, 42-33.
For the Crusaders (11-7, 6-6), Kuhns had 14 points while Elizabeth Ladrach compiled 12 points and nine rebounds.
In the OAC standings (16-3, 9-3), Mount Union gained some ground on the league-leading Baldwin-Wallace Yellow Jackets (15-4, 10-2), who dropped a 61-53 decision to Muskingum on Saturday.
The Purple Raiders, who are ranked 18th by D3Hoops.com and T-22nd on the ESPN/USA Today poll, will play next on Wednesday when it visits Muskingum for a 7:30 p.m. start.