The Misericordia University women's basketball team dropped a hard-fought 51-44 decision at King's in a first-place Freedom Conference showdown, Wednesday night at King's.

Jesse Robinson led the Cougars with 12 points and Christine Marks added 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Tyann McDaniel added 10 points, including two three-pointers to pass Colleen Corrigan (163) as Misericordia's all-time leader from long range with 164.

The Cougars led 29-27 at halftime, but managed just 15 points in the second half as they saw their four-game winning streak snapped.

After shooting 45.8% from the floor in the first half, the Cougars were just 6-of-21 (28.6%) in the second half.

Marks opened the second half with a jumper to give the Cougars a 31-27 lead.  Katie Drayton's jumper made it 33-30 and Robinson made one of two free throws to give the Cougars their last lead of the night, 34-30.

King's tied it, 34-34, with 12:00 to go and eventually built a nine-point lead, 43-34, with 7:07 to play.

Lauren Smicherko's jumper got MU within seven, but King's answered with a bucket make it 45-36 with 5:25 left.

Hannah Seely sank a jumper and Smicherko and Marks both drained three-pointers to get MU within 45-44, with 2:49 remaining.

But, the Cougars went scoreless the rest of the way and the Monarchs closed the game on a 7-0 run, including four free throws in the final 20 seconds.

The Cougars trailed 21-16 midway through the first half, but the Cougars used an 8-0 run to take a 24-16 lead with 6:15 left in the first half.

McDaniel cut the lead to 21-19 with her record-breaking three-pointer and her layup tied it before Robinson's three-pointer put MU ahead.

Misericordia is 9-8 (5-2) while King's improved to 15-7 (7-0).  The Cougars will host FDU-Florham, Saturday.