BANNER ELK, NC-- The Valkyries basketball squad repeated its January 13th victory over Lees McRae College Monday night 70-65. The win boosts Converse to 4-11 in conference play.

In the first period, Lees-McRae built an early 14 point lead, 24-10, with 14:26 to play in the first half on hot shooting. The Bobcats took their largest lead a minute later when Colette Montgomery hit the a free throw to give the Bobcats a 15 point lead, 25-10.

With just under seven minutes to play in the half, Lees-McRae held a 12 point lead, 37-25, only to see an Alaina Smith field goal spark a 16-2 run to give the Valkyries a 41-39 lead going into the break.

After the half, the two teams traded the lead for the first five minutes of the half before a Morgan Sacharski field goal would give Converse the lead for good in the game, 51-48, with 13:50 to play.

The Valkyries pushed their lead to seven, 55-48, with 12 minutes remaining on Katie Vaughn free throws, but Lees-McRae would battle back and cut the lead to three, 61-58, on a Casey three with five and a half minutes to play.

Converse would stay just out of reach of the Bobcats and hold on to the 70-65 win.

Thurau paced the Lady Bobcats with a career-high 25 points on 9-of-14 shooting from the floor and 7-of-9 shooting from three. Casey, who was, 6-of-11 fg, 4-of-5 three points and 7-of-8 from the free throw line, added 23 points and seven assists for Lees-McRae.

For the Valkyries, Ashley Arff scored a team-high 17 points and was followed by Ashley Day and Smith who had 11 points and ten points respectively. Day also had a team-high eight rebounds and Latrell Nickens had four assists.

Converse will play at home this Thursday against conference rival Limestone College in Hannah Gym. Tip-off is set for 7pm.