Despite a furious late comeback attempt, the Lady Bearcats were defeated at Bethany College by a 99-88 score.

Laura Klimchock led all scorers with 28 points, while Janelle Reed added 26 and Maria Baroffio came off the bench to score 14 for SVC.

The game was close early on, with threes from Baroffio and Reed giving the Lady Bearcats a 16-15 lead eight minutes into play.  Bethany then answered in a big way, outscoring SVC 28-9 over the next seven minutes to take a 43-25 advantage with four minutes left until halftime.  

SVC then finished the half on a 12-8 run, with Reed and Klimchock scoring five points apiece,to take a 51-37 deficit into halftime.

The Bison came out of the intermission on fire, forcing 11 SVC turnovers over the first 10 minutes to go up 71-48.

The Bethany lead hovered around 20 points for the next several moments until it was the Lady Bearcats' turn to take control.

Trailing 80-58 with 5:45 left to play, the Lady Bearcats began to creep back into it.  The SVC defense held the Bison scoreless on five straight trips down the court, forcing two turnovers, while Reed scored five points in a 45 second span.  Klimchock then took over, scoring 12 points over the next 2:30, cutting the Bethany advantage to 89-80, the closest that SVC had been since midway through the first half. 

Bethany pushed its lead back up to 11, 91-81, with 1:26 to go, but two free-throws from Kayla Marghella cut the SVC deficit back into single digits at 91-83.

It was as close as the Lady Bearcats could get, however, as Bethany hit five free throws over the final 55 seconds to hold off the SVC rally.

The Lady Bearcats shot 47 percent from the field, including 52 percent in a second half in which they outscored the Bison 51-48.  However, SVC committed a season-high 35 turnovers.

Five players scored in double figures for Bethany, led by Susannah Cartland's 20 points and Kelly Goode's 18.  In all, a total of 11 players scored at least two points for the Bison.

With the loss, their fifth straight, the Lady Bearcats fall to 3-9 on the season, while Bethany improved to 6-5. 

SVC will be back in action on Saturday night, hosting Thiel College at 6pm in a contest that will be broadcast live on the Red Zone Media Network (www.redzonemedia.com).

Photo: SVC's Janelle Reed looks to pass in the first half at Bethany