ERIE, Pa. -- The Mercyhurst women's basketball team suffered a 65-62 loss to cross-town rival Gannon on Wednesday in Pennslvania State Athletic Conference action at the Mercyhurst Athletic Center.

Angela Heintz led Laker scorers with 18 points while Jalin Steel and Adrienne Kloecker put in 11 and 10, respectively. Steel also had three steals, Kloecker made five assists and Emilee Norris hauled down 10 rebounds.

MU (9-10, 7-6) took a 27-25 into halftime and used a 10-2 run -- seven points by Heintz and three by Hayley Andres -- to build its largest lead at 39-30 in the third quarter.

Leading 46-43 in the fourth, Mercyhurst fell victim to a 13-point Gannon run, including 10 points by the game's leading scorer, Morgan Neighbors.

The Knights (12-5, 10-3) went up, 56-46, and held the lead for the rest of the game, but not before the Lakers provided one last scare to their visitors.

A pair of free throws by Steel trimmed the Gannon lead to 64-62 with 9.1 seconds left. After a Mercyhurst foul, Gannon's Jennie Thies converted 1 of 2 freebies herself, giving the Lakers one final opportunity to tie, but a 3-point attempt by Heintz missed its mark.

Neighbors totaled 26 points on the night while McKenna Shives chipped in with 16 points and Thies grabbed nine rebounds.

The Knights held a considerable advantage at the charity stripe, going 21 of 26 (80.8 percent) while Mercyhurst was just 5 of 11 (45.5 percent). Those figures include a fourth quarter in which Gannon was 11 of 14 and Mercyhurst was 3 of 6.

The teams were even in the rebounding department at 38-all.

Mercyhurst will return to action on Saturday with a 1 p.m. PSAC contest at California (Pa.).