The Case Western Reserve University women's basketball team suffered a 70-57 setback to Marymount University in the championship game of the Pablo Coto Tip-Off Tournament in Arlington, Virginia on Saturday night.

The loss dropped the Spartans to 2-2 on the year, while Marymount, which hosted the tournament, improved to 3-2 with the win.

CWRU senior forward Kayla Characklis led all Spartans in the game with a season-high 18 points and added six rebounds. She earned All-Tournament honors after averaging 14.5 points and six rebounds over the two games.

Graduate student forward Kate Montgomery scored eight points and collected six rebounds with two assists and three steals.

After falling behind 9-2 early, the Spartans went on a 7-0 run, evening the score on a layup by Characklis with 5:55 left in the period. CWRU went on to take its first lead of the game with 4:43 left on another layup by Characklis that set the score at 13-11. The Saints responded with a 7-0 run of their own to take a five-point lead and Marymount closed out the opening period leading 21-15.

The Saints extended their lead to eight with the first basket of the second quarter but threes on back-to-back possessions by first-year guards Mya Hartjes and Jordyn Call cut the lead to two points, 23-21. However, that would be as close as CWRU would get for the remainder of the half, as Marymount pulled away to lead by as many as 11 points and took a 41-31 lead into halftime.

Marymount increased its lead to as many as 12 points in the third quarter, but the Spartans trimmed it to as few as six points after Montgomery scored five straight to set the score at 50-44 with 2:54 to play. The Saints would be able to get their lead back to double digits by the end of the third and led 56-45 heading into the fourth.

CWRU got back into the game with an 8-0 run in the fourth quarter, as Characklis made it a one-possession game with a layup that cut the Saints' lead to 58-55 with 5:11 to play. However, the Saints ended the game on a 12-2 run to close out the win.

Saturday was another strong showing for the CWRU bench, which outscored the Saints 22-5 in the game. The Spartans finished the game shooting 37.7% as a team.

The Spartans will be back in action on Tuesday, November 21, making the trip across town to face John Carroll University at 6:00 p.m. in University Heights, Ohio.