The Dickinson women’s basketball team made a great run late, but #2-seed Muhlenberg College held on to top the #3-seed Red Devils, 56-51, in the Centennial Conference semifinals on Friday night at Haverford College.

Muhlenberg jumped out to a 17-4 lead in the first quarter before Hannah Heiring ‘20 scored back-to-back field-goals to make the score 17-8 at the end of the first period of play. Defense took over as the game remained scoreless for almost four minutes in the second before Helen Roberts ‘17 made a three-pointer to pull the Red Devils within six.

Jennifer Smith ’17 netted 5 consecutive points after a Muhlenherg score to pull Dickinson with three, 19-16, with 2:28 to play in the first half.

The Mules countered with back-to-back scores before Smith and Mary Martin ‘17 answered to make it a four-point game, 24-20, at halftime.

Muhlenberg went on a 10-0 run to start the third quarter to build the lead to 14 with 3:22 left in the period. Lauren McBride ‘20 came off the bench to hit a three-pointer and Heiring scored a fireld goal and hit two free throws to pull the Red Devils within eight, 37-29, with 1:47 left to play in the period.

Heiring hit a three-pointer to pull Dickinson within five before single free throws gave Muhlenberg a 39-32 advantage at the end of the third.

Muhlenberg built the lead to 49-36 early on in the fourth quarter before Roberts went on a tear and lead Dickinson on a final charge down the stretch. She hit three three-pointers in a span of just over a minute to cut the deficit to five with 30 seconds left to play in the game.

Brandi Vallely stretched the margin back to eight with 20 seconds on the clock, but Roberts and the Devils weren’t done quite yet.

Roberts hit four free-throws to make it a four-point game with four seconds left, but the Mules managed to run out the clock for the final of 56-51.

Roberts finished with 16 points and two assists, draining four three-pointers on the night. Heiring reached scored 12 points to go along with four rebounds while Martin racked up nine points, seven rebounds and a pair of steals. Smith tallied seven points to go with four rebounds, and Kassidy Lesher ‘18 hauled in 11 rebounds.

The Red Devils finish the season 18-8 overall and 15-5 in the Centennial Conference. Roberts raised her school record for three-pointers in a season to 78 and the career record to 169. Martin moved into fourth in program history with 698 career rebounds while Lesher moved up to sixth with 669.