WASHINGTON – In a strong defensive battle, the American University women's basketball team came up short against Army West Point on Saturday afternoon, dropping a 52-42 contest to the Black Knights in Bender Arena.

Freshman Cecily Carl led the Eagles with 10 points and six rebounds, while sophomore Emily Kinneston added eight points.

For the Black Knights, Kelsey Minato finished with a game-high 18 points, while Janae McNeal added 15.

The Eagles struggled with turnovers early in the game, enabling the Black Knights to get out to an 8-2 lead less than four minutes into the contest. However, a three-pointer by Carl ignited a 7-0 AU run to put the Eagles on top, before going into the second period with an 11-10 lead.

Both teams started out cold in the second period, missing their first 11 shots combined. Army ended the scoring drought with a basket at the 5:38 mark to regain the lead and went into the intermission with a 20-17 advantage.

After a three-pointer by junior Jordan Light gave American a 24-22 lead with under seven minutes remaining in the third period, the Black Knights responded with a 13-3 run to take the lead for good.

In the final stanza, the Eagles cut the margin to 40-38 with just over five minutes to play, but Army went on another run to push its lead to double digits and knocked down free throws down the stretch to ice the victory.

"They're a very difficult team to guard," said American head coach Megan Gebbia. "Our goal was to hold their top three scorers to 28 points or less, and we did that, but they had some role players step up for them.

"I think the problem for us today was really on the offensive end."

AU shot just over 33 percent from the field and finished with 14 turnovers, six of which came in the first period alone. American also gave up a 33-26 advantage on the boards, and were outscored in the paint, 32-14.

The Eagles are back in action on Wednesday, Jan. 20, when they host Lafayette in a 7 p.m. contest.