WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J.- Monmouth University's (0-1) women's basketball team opened up the 2011-12 season with a 68-64 loss at home to the University of Maryland-Baltimore County (2-0) on Sunday afternoon.

The teams battled back in forth in a game that featured 11 lead changes and found the score tied on four occasions.

"Other than the outcome of the game, I was pleased with the way we played today," said MU Head Coach Jenny Palmateer.  "We saw some good things tonight, I thought we shot the ball pretty well.  One of the things we pride ourselves on is rebounding and they got the best of us in that category.   I saw a lot of things we can improve on.  We were able to keep them out of the paint a little bit in the second half and overall we are just going to build from here."

UMBC, which was chosen first in the America East Preseason Coaches Poll, got 20 points from forward Tope Obajolu and 18 from guard Erin Brown in the win.  The Hawks were led by junior guard Carly Thibault's (East Lyme, Conn./East Lyme) career-high 19 points while junior Betsy Gadziala (Whitesboro, N.Y./Whitesboro) and Abby Martin (Maplewood, N.J./Columbia) had 13 and 10 points, respectively.

"We had some people step up with tremendous efforts," said Palmateer. "Carly shot the ball unbelievable, played a ton of minutes and never got tired.  Betsy was phenomenal , her aggressiveness and her ability to put the ball in the basket when we needed it was huge."

The game was the first for MU Head Coach Jenny Palmateer, who was without two-time All-NEC selection Alysha Womack (Springfield, Pa./Cardinal O'Hara) and guard Adriana Allen (Ajax, Ontario/Pickering), both who missed the game with injury.

Martin's jumper with 51 seconds to play got the Hawks to within four at 66-62, who then forced a UMBC turnover and fed Alexis Canady (Forestville, Md./Bishop McNamara) on a fast break where the senior captain laid the ball in to cut the lead to a pair. The Hawks fouled Lauren Chase, who hit both ends of a one and one to put her squad up 68-64 with 16 seconds left in regulation. Monmouth was unable to close the gap any further as the Hawks fell by four to the Retrievers.

The start of the second half found the Hawks trailing just three to UMBC partially because MU shot 71 percent from beyond the arc.  That lead didn't last long as Thibault hit her fifth three of the game at the 16:29 mark and Monmouth was back on top, 39-37. The teams traded the lead three times over the next four minutes of the game , with Gadziala hitting a pair of huge layups to regain the lead for MU each time.

Monmouth trailed by three with just under eight minutes to play but UMBC's lead ballooned to eight after five straight points from junior guard Erin Brown. MU cut the lead to three on a Gadziala trey with 4:57 on the clock but the Retrievers scored five unanswered to regain an eight point cushion. 

Monmouth sprinted out to a 9-0 lead with five of those points coming from Thibault.  The Retrievers cut the lead to five with four straight points heading into the first media timeout.  UMBC launched an 8-2 run over the next three minutes to take their first lead of the game, 12-11 with 12:54 showing on the clock.

The teams traded the lead four times over the next five minutes until the 7:08 mark when UMBC took the lead for the remainder of the period. The Retrievers went up by as much as eight points with 1:39 to play but the Hawks dropped two three pointers in the closing minutes of the half.

Thibault finished with a career-high 19 points, 16 of which came in the first half when she was 4-of-4 from beyond the arc. The junior finished with 7-of-10 shooting, including 5-of-7 from three point range while playing in a career-high 37 minutes.
 
Monmouth shot 44.8 percent from the floor, while UMBC shot 49.2%. The Retrievers held a 35-33 advantage on the glass. The Hawks got 21 points off the bench, compared to UMBC's two, while MU netted 22 points off of 14 Retriever turnovers.

The Hawks face Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, N.C. on Tuesday, November 15 at 6:30 p.m.