Freshman guard Eastin Ashby unleashed 23 points off the bench, but it wasn't enough as a strong first half from Wheaton put Emerson in an early deficit, too much to overcome in the end.

It was "Senior Night" at Wheaton College and the Lyons downed the visiting Emerson Women's Basketball team, 73-61.

With the loss, the Lady Lions drop to 11-13 on the season and 5-10 in conference play, while Wheaton (17-7, 12-3 NEWMAC) moves up to the No. 2 seed in the NEWMAC conference standings, trailing only Springfield (19-6, 14-2) with one game to go.

Senior Kristin Brice recorded the first basket of the game at 19:02 with a layup to give the Lady Lions their only lead of the game.

In the first half, Ashby led Emerson with nine points and two steals, as she worked hard to keep up with the fast-pace play of Lyons' starters Kirsten Ferrari (11 points), Rebecca Arnone (nine points, seven rebounds) and Abbie Brickley (eight points) for Wheaton.

Emerson trailed 41-23 at the end of the first half, but showed a valiant effort, outscoring the Lyons, 38-32, in the second half.

The Lady Lions got a huge effort from the bench as 50 of the team's 61 points came from non-starters. Emerson showed heart, as the Lady Lions trailed by as much as 27 points with 13:24 left in the game and managed to cut the margin to 11 points late in the game.

Ashby lit it up, nailing five of nine shots from the floor (3 three-pointers) for 14 points, as junior forward Kelsey Johnson and freshman forward Sierra Ducey chipped in for seven and eight points apiece in the half.

Overall, EC was out-rebounded 49-30 and lost the points-off-turnovers battle.

Brickley finished with 18 points, Ferrari (11 points) and Arnone turned in a double-double (11 points, 11 rebounds) to boost a powerful Wheaton offense.

The Lady Lions will finish out the regular season on the road with a 1:00 p.m. game Saturday, Feb. 21 against the Clark University Cougars in Worcester, Mass.