WILMINGTON, Del. - The Caldwell College women's basketball team lost to Goldey-Beacom College, 80-64 in a Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference game Saturday afternoon. The Cougars, who got 22 points and seven rebounds from junior forward Melissa Freeman (Cresskill, NJ/Cresskill), are now 6-8 overall and 4-5 in the conference, while the Lightning improve to 9-5, 6-3 CACC.

Goldey-Beacom broke open a close game with a 14-6 run late in the first half to take a 34-23 lead with 1:26 left in the half. Baskets by junior guard Dana Leary (Bridgewater, NJ/Bridgewater) and sophomore Mackenzie Lynch (Wayne, NJ/DePaul Catholic) before halftime made the score 34-27 at the break. But the Lightning quickly pushed the lead back to double digits, outscoring the Cougars 17-8 over the first seven minutes of the second half to grab a 51-35 advantage. The lead would grow to as many as 22 points before Caldwell answered with a 13-2 spree of their own. Freeman tallied nine points in the run that to reduced the lead to 68-57 with 4:45 remaining. But that is as close as the Cougars would get, as Goldey-Beacom wrapped up its third straight conference win in a row.

Freeman went 7-of-14 from the field and 8-of-10 from the line en route to a season-high 22 points. Senior guard Shannon Coyle (Matawan, NJ/St. John Vianney) added 12 points and four assists, with junior guard Phylicia Holmes (Roselle, NJ/Roselle) grabbing seven boards to match Freeman to team honors. Toni Jones scored a game-high 24 points, and Cherise Grant recorded 17 points and 13 rebounds for the Lightning.

Caldwell plays at Nyack College on Tuesday, Jan. 16 in another CACC clash. Game time is set for 6:00 p.m. in Nyack, N.Y.