BETHLEHEM, Pa. --- The Moravian College women's basketball team won its eighth straight contest as the Greyhounds returned to Johnston Hall from a five-game road trip to post an 81-67 victory over The Catholic University of America in Landmark Conference action Saturday afternoon.

"We were focused today," commented Head Coach Mary Beth Spirk. "It is still early but you've got to win these conference games at home and I thought we established right from the start. It went back-and-forth a little bit but I felt like we were controlling the game, and I thought the key was how we came out in the third quarter, making a couple of shots and put them away."

The Hounds used a balanced scoring attack with four players in double figures, led by graduate student forward Alexis Wright, who had her sixth double-double of the season and 48th of her career with 14 points and 14 rebounds. Wright also had four assists, three blocked shots and a pair of steals while senior forward Alesha Marcks and senior guard Samantha Caligiuri each netted 13 points and dished out three assists with Marcks adding four boards. Sophomore forward Trista Cunningham contributed 11 points for the Hounds.

Junior forward Camille McPherson scored nine points and added seven rebounds for Moravian while junior guard Morgan Calabrese had seven points, three boards and a pair of assists. Senior guard Karine Polgar contributed four points, three rebounds and a team-high four blocked shots including three on fast break attempts by the Cardinals while freshman guard Maggie Melhem had five rebounds and three assists as Moravian dished out 20 assists on 26 made field goals.

"While I was pleased with the effort today, what I was most pleased about was that again we weren't relying on one or two people, and it was spread around," noted Spirk. "Morgan popped in. Karine came in and played tough. Trista played great, and that is a key for us. We're deep this year and can play a lot of people and hopefully will continue to do that.

"I saw at halftime that Alexis had just two points and we're in pretty good shape, and that's the thing, they were double and triple teaming her, and we have people stepping up and shooting the ball," continued Spirk. "Karine hit a big three in the first half and Emily hit one in the second half. Obviously you play a lot looser when you are up big, and it is a nice win heading into the New Year with the conference at least."

The Greyhounds, who are 8-1 overall and 2-0 in Landmark Conference action, have shot at least 42 percent in each game during the winning streak including 43.3 percent (26-for-60) on Saturday versus the Cardinals. Moravian's streak also includes at least one half of the game at over 50 percent from the field in seven of eight games including the second half against Catholic when the Blue & Grey were 17-for-30 over the final 20 minutes.

Moravian had an early 2-0 lead on a fast break lay-up from Caligiuri on a steal, and McPherson gave Blue and Grey a 7-5 lead with a three-pointer. Trailing 9-7 in the opening quarter, the Greyhounds went on a 12-1 run to build a 19-10 advantage after a pair of free throws by Cunningham with 2:37 left in the opening period, and Moravian led 21-16 after the first 10 minutes of action.

Catholic had a 7-1 run to start the second quarter to take a 23-22 lead but the Greyhounds answered and took the lead for good on a three-pointer by Calabrese with 6:30 before the intermission. Moravian would head to the locker room with a 35-25 advantage.

The Hounds scored the first seven points of the third quarter to build a 42-25 lead on a lay-up by Melhem with 8:30 still on the clock, and the lead would hit 22 points at the end of the third period, 64-42. Moravian opened the final quarter with an 8-0 run to push the lead to 30 points, 72-42, on a three-pointer from senior guard Emily MacDonnell with 7:36 to play. Coach Spirk used her deep bench the rest of the game as 14 players saw action in the contest with only Wright and Caligiuri playing more than 21 minutes.

"It felt good to be back home, and we had a nice crowd. We grinded it out, and I knew it was going to be a tough win with Catholic as good as they are as the conference favorite in the preseason but we have a good team and hopefully we can keep it going," finished Spirk.

Moravian is slated to return to action on Wednesday, December 9 when the Greyhounds host Wilkes University in a non-conference game tipping off at 6:00 p.m. in Johnston Hall.