Box Score TOWSON – The Loyola University Maryland women's basketball team cut its deficit to three points in the final minute, but Towson University held off the Greyhounds' comeback and escaped with a 62-57 win at SECU Arena Tuesday.
 
Sophomore Delaney Connolly led all players with a game- and career-high 19 points. Freshman Taleah Dixon also contributed a career-high, knocking down 18 points, while junior Stephanie Karcz led all players with a game-high 10 rebounds.
 
Nukiya Mayo led the Tigers with 15 points and seven rebounds.
 
Dixon made the most of her first collegiate start, knocking down a jumper to give Loyola its first lead, 4-3, and then converted a pair of free throws to keep the Greyhounds in front, 6-5. Junior Hannah Niles halted a 6-0 Tigers run that put the home team in front 11-6, but Towson continued the run, extending its lead to six, at 14-8. Dixon knocked down another jumper to keep Loyola within four, 14-10, and senior Bri Betz-White ended the quarter with a layup to send the Greyhounds into the second quarter with a four-point deficit, 16-12.
 
Loyola would be held scoreless for the first 5:36 of the second quarter, as the Tigers extended their lead to 10, 22-12. Connolly's layup broke the Greyhounds' scoreless streak, and while her pair of free throws at the 1:27 mark cut Loyola's deficit to 10, 26-16, Towson scored the final three points of the half to take a 29-16 lead into the break.
 
Despite allowing Towson to work its lead to 42-19, Connolly scored eight points in a 13-4 Greyhound run that was capped off by Betz-White's free throw at the 2:13 mark, pulling Loyola within 14, 46-32.
 
Dixon knocked down a trey with 1:05 to go and then a triple from Connolly closed out the quarter and sent Loyola into the final frame facing a 15-point deficit, 53-38.
 
The Greyhounds would continue to battle though, putting together a 10-1 run to cut the Tigers' lead to six, 57-51, on Connolly's trey with 3:28 to play.
 
Betz-White then connected from downtown in consecutive possessions, bringing Loyola within three, 60-57, at the 1:33 mark, but that would be as close as the Greyhounds would get, as the Tigers made two final free to account for the 62-57 final.
 
The Greyhounds will return to action on Friday when they host Saint Francis Brooklyn at 7 p.m.