ALLENTOWN, Pa. --- Junior guard Emily MacDonnell calmly hit the second and third shots on her three free throw attempts with just 0.3 seconds left to finish off a 10-point rally in the final 4:55 and lift the Moravian College women's basketball team to a 61-60 victory over rival Muhlenberg College in Memorial Hall Saturday night to begin the 2014-15 season.

The Greyhounds starting line-up for the game featured senior forward Alexis Wright, who was returning from a knee injury last season, as the only player with real starting experience. The other four starters, MacDonnell, junior forward Alesha Marcks and sophomore guards Morgan Calabrese and Nellie Tanguay had combined to start just three games in their careers with two by MacDonnell and one by Marcks.

"I was overall pleased with our effort. We played hard and in a position to win the game at the end, and that is all you can ask for," commented Head Coach Mary Beth Spirk. "This is a young team, and being down 15 points at one point, we played defense and made a couple of plays. I think this is how this team is going to be, grinding out games. It is a great win on the road at Muhlenberg."

The Hounds were down 59-49 with 4:55 left on the clock but they would limit the Mules to a free throw with just 37 seconds to play. Muhlenberg had a chance to extend its 60-59 lead when Marcks fouled out of the game with 10 seconds to play, but the Mules missed both free throws. Moravian called a timeout with 5.2 seconds left and set up a play for Calabrese. Her shot was blocked but she grabbed the rebound and fired the ball off to MacDonnell for a last second shot.

It initially looked like MacDonnell's shot was off the mark to end the game, but the officials ruled she was fouled isn the act of shooting and put 0.3 seconds back on the clock and awarded MacDonnell three shots at the charity stripe. After she missed the first attempt, the Mules called a timeout. Back at the line, MacDonnell hit the second shot to tie the score at 60-60. Muhlenberg used another timeout before MacDonnell lined up and connected on the winning shot. The Mules inbounded the ball but never got a shot off as the Hounds would celebrate the season opening victory.

"That was just ice in her veins there with Emily," stated Spirk. "She was the perfect one to be in that situation, and the only other person I would have said we'd want in that situation at this point was Alesha but with her on the bench Emily stepped up. You've got to grow up, and she did right there." 

Marcks led the Greyhounds with a career-high 26 points to go with eight rebounds and three steals. She was 10-for-11 at the foul line while the rest of the team was just 5-of-11, and Marcks connected on 8-of-15 field goal attempts.

"I actually thought Alesha had more than 26 points," Spirk said. "She is going to have to do that until Alexis really gets back into the flow. At one point, Muhlenberg couldn't stop her but she was exhausted to we had to give her a break. She played great in just her second career start."

Wright tossed in seven points in her first game back, and she grabbed a team-high 13 rebounds to raise her career total to 634 and move into 10th in school history. Wright also had three steals in the contest.

"I was happy to see Alexis out there," commented Spirk. "She got on the floor a few times, and the play late in the game when she drove and got fouled is something that we wanted. I'd definitely rather have her on the court than off of it."

MacDonnell finished with eight points in the game to go along with four rebounds, a team-high four assists and a pair of steals while Calabrese, Tanguay and freshman guard Taylor Freeman all scored five points. Calabrese grabbed five boards and added two assists while Tanguay pulled down three rebounds.

Sophomore forward Natalie Vanderlaan-Meyering blocked a game-high three shots to go with four rebounds and two points while freshman forward Trista Cunningham and junior guard Marie Rossignoli each grabbed four boards with Rossignoli adding three points.

The game started well for the Greyhounds with Marcks scoring on the opening possession of the season, and Moravian would lead 8-0 after a shot by Rossignoli at the 15:07 mark.

"I think that start was huge because we were nervous," Spirk stated. "It showed we could play with them, and I think it gave us some momentum even though Muhlenberg came back. When they came out hard in the second half, we had the first half in the back of our minds and knew if we played, we could come back."

The Mules eventually got on the scoreboard at 13:32 but the Hounds pushed the lead to 12-2 with 11:27 before halftime on a pair of free throws by Marcks. Muhlenberg fought back and tied the game at 16-16 with 6:14 to go, and the Mules pulled ahead, 21-20, at the 2:26 mark. Back-to-back three-pointers by MacDonnell and Tanguay would send the Greyhounds to the locker room with a 26-24 advantage.

The start of the second half was all Muhlenberg as the Mules scored 10 straight points to take a 34-26 lead before Marcks broke the Moravian scoring slump. Muhlenberg kept the pressure on and eventually pulled out to a 15-point lead, 49-34 with 11:38 to play.

The Hounds turned up the head and scored the next nine points to pull within 49-45 after a free throw from Wright with 8:15 to go. Once again, the Mules countered and pushed their lead back to 10 points, 59-49, with 4:55 on the clock.

"I think we just started playing harder at that point. We sort of weren't mature enough," Spirk said. "The way we played in the first half, I think the players thought they were going to win. Muhlenberg is a good team and they came out hard in the second half and made shots. We called a timeout and just told them that they needed to play harder. I thought we just picked up our intensity a little bit and it made all the difference."

Freeman connected on her first collegiate three-pointer to get Moravian going and Marcks tied the game at 59-59 with 1:28 to play on a jumper. On the next possession, Wright drove to the basket and was fouled but missed on both opportunities to put the Hounds in front. However, the Mules made just one of four free throws in the final minute to set up MacDonnell's winning shots.

Moravian will begin its 2014-15 home season on Tuesday, November 18 when the squad welcomes The College of New Jersey to Johnston Hall for a 7:00 p.m. non-conference game.