SYRACUSE, N.Y. - The Saint Michael's College women's basketball team overcame a 17-point deficit to take two late leads before yielding the winning hoop to Le Moyne College with three seconds remaining in a 70-69 loss on Saturday at Ted Grant Court during Northeast-10 Conference play. The Purple Knights slipped to 7-6 overall and 2-6 in the league, as four of their losses have come by 10 points or less, while the Dolphins are 10-5 and 4-4.

Senior Maggie Sabine (Litchfield, Maine/Oak Hill/Central Maine CC) and junior Makenzie Burud (Red Hook, N.Y./Coleman Catholic) both had 19 points for Saint Michael's. Sabine shot 9-of-12 and added eight rebounds - five offensive - and four assists, while Burud had 17 points in the second stanza alone. Senior Kelly Frappier (Colchester, Conn./Bacon Academy) turned in eight points and eight rebounds, and junior Megan Gaudreau (Brooklyn, Conn./Pomfret School) posted eight points and five assists. With a pair of three-pointers in her 64th career game, Gaudreau increased her career triples total to 98 and passed Dani Rayner '07 (107 games) for 10th in program history. Sophomore Indira Evora (Somerville, Mass./Somerville) picked up three steals. Saint Michael's shot a season-high 53.7 percent.

Senior Tessa Pucello (Syracuse, N.Y./Solvay) paced Le Moyne with 18 points off the bench, turning in a 5-of-6 three-point performance during the first half, and junior Vandell Andrade (Cranston, R.I./Saint Mary's Academy-Bay View/Rhode Island College) collected 14 points, seven boards, seven assists and three steals. Senior Alex Marple (Covington, Pa./Wellsboro) notched 13 points, and senior Bath-Sheba McMahon (Queens, N.Y./Grambling Laboratory/Weatherford) scored 12. Le Moyne shot 63.3 percent in the first half before ending the game at 49.2 percent.

The Purple Knights trailed by as many as 17 points with fewer than 13 minutes to play in the second half, including 56-39 before scoring 28 of the next 38 points to go in front late. Gaudreau scored five points in a 12-0 run that brought the visitors within 56-51, on first-year Tomi Akinpetide's (Sydney, Australia/Rice Memorial) lay-in with 7:49 remaining, but Le Moyne went back up by nine when Marple knocked down a triple with 6:11 to go. What followed was a 12-2 Saint Michael's run during which Burud scored six points and Sabine four, including netting the go-ahead jumper at 2:27. Pucello countered 38 seconds later with a lay-up that gave the hosts a 68-67 edge, but Burud dropped in a lay-in at 1:22 to put the visitors back in front, 69-68. The Dolphins controlled the ball for the next 1:19, using three offensive rebounds to extend possession, and Marple hit a jumper with three ticks left. Saint Michael's did not get a shot off before the buzzer.

Sabine scored the first two baskets of the contest before Le Moyne countered with four points to tie, but Gaudreau buried a three-pointer at 16:37 of the opening half to spark a 10-2 run. Evora hit a triple of her own to make it 14-6 by 14:10, but the Dolphins countered with a 14-2 run that took 2:43 to elapse. Pucello knocked down a pair of treys, including the go-ahead three at 11:38. Two hoops by Frappier sandwiched Andrade's jumper to twice bring the Purple Knights within two points, but Pucello hit another trey to kick off a 7-2 stretch that gave her team a 29-22 advantage by 7:50.

Saint Michael's notched the next seven points to square the score, with Sabine scoring the first five and Burud dropping in the tying bucket at 5:30. Just 12 seconds later, Pucello hit another go-ahead triple to kick off a halftime-spanning 19-3 run, eventually finishing with seven points in that stretch. McMahon added six points, as the Purple Knights received their lone basket off the hands of junior Morgan Jenkins (Revere, Mass./Revere) for a lay-in at 1:30. Marple provided her team its first 17-point cushion at 14:27 of the second half, and Andrade's bucket left it 56-39 with 13:32 remaining.

The Purple Knights complete their five-game road swing on Tuesday by heading to the University of New Haven for a 1 p.m. contest. The Chargers are receiving votes toward the latest USA TODAY national poll while tying for sixth in this week's D2SIDA East Region Media Poll.