Purdue women's basketball survived a scare on Monday night, needing a massive fourth quarter boost from Rashunda Jones to fight off a scrappy Bellarmine team 78-67. The Boilermakers by as much as eight in the third quarter before storming back to outscore the Knights by nine in the final frame, led by Jones' 13 points down the stretch.

Purdue has now won back-to-back games over IU Indianapolis and Bellarmine, to move to 3-1 on the young season.

The Boilermakers got off to a roaring start, led by their front court tandem of Lana McCarthy and Reagan Bass. The pair combined for Purdue's first 11 points of the night, before Sophie Swanson connected with her first three of the game to give the Boilermakers an early 14-2 lead at the 5:32 mark.

Conversely, Bellarmine started 1-9 from the field, but began heating up as the quarter progressed. The Knights connected on three straight field goals to begin chipping into the lead, going on an 8-2 run over three minutes to make it a 16-10 game.

Bellarmine dropped into a 2-3 zone over the latter half of the first quarter, which gave Purdue some fits and resulted in four of the Boilermakers' five turnovers in the frame. It helped force a 2:10 scoreless stretch of Purdue, which was snapped by a Lana McCarthy layup and Mahri Petree jumper.

McCarthy scored eight of Purdue's 20 points in the opening quarter, while being the center of attention for the Bellarmine defense.

Despite having struggled offensively over the last five minutes of play, the Boilermakers maintained an eight-point lead, taking a 20-12 advantage into the second quarter.

Purdue began cracking Bellarmine's defensive puzzle early in the second quarter, with the help of McCarthy, but as a facilitator. McCarthy got a pair of post feeds in the paint, dishing them out to Sophie Swanson and Ella Collier, who combined for three straight connections from beyond the arc to kickstart a 13-3 Boilermaker run.

Swanson caught fire in the middle of the quarter, scoring eight points in less than two minutes of game action to help spur on the Purdue surge.

Reagan Bass then joined the party with an offensive rebound and subsequent layup to give the Boilermakers a 17-point lead at the 5:49 mark of the second quarter, which also began a stretch of the senior forward scoring six straight for the Boilermakers.

After extending the lead to 17, Purdue found itself on the wrong end of a Bellarmine run. The Knights scored 12 unanswered, including back-to-back threes by Hope Sivori and Hayley Harrison.

The Boilermakers missed seven straight field goal attempts during that time to allow the Knights to cut the lead to just five going into the locker room.

The momentum to end the first half continued into the third quarter for the Knights, who came out inspired while the Boilermakers sat in shock. Bellarmine, completed its comeback thanks to a Hope Sivori triple and back-to-back layups by Miyah Brown and Skylar Treadwell.

That trio helped lead the Knights on a 13-0 run to start the second half, which finished as a 25-0 run across the end of the first half and start of the second half. That stretch saw the Boilermakers go 0-17 until Kendall Puryear got the lid off the basket with 4:47 left in the third quarter, muscling her way to an and-one in the paint.

Reagan Bass then left her imprint on the third quarter, scoring seven straight points for the Boilemrkaers to cut what was an eight-point Bellarmine lead to just one with 2:28 left in the third quarter.

Amiyah Reynolds added a free throw moments later to tie the game at 52-52 before Erin Toller knocked down a three to give the Knights some momentary breathing room.

Rashunda Jones then broke the tie with 27 seconds left in the third quarter, giving the Boilermakers a two-point lead heading into the final frame.

That final frame was back and forth through the opening two minutes, with the Knights taking a three point lead after a layup by Harrison and another Toller three. The Boilermakers then settled in and were off to the races.

Rashunda Jones weaved through the defense for a wide open layup, followed by a pull up jumper on the next possession. After Lana McCarthy had a layup, Jones converted a three-point play in transition to give the Boilermakers an eight-point lead with less than five minutes to play.

The sophomore guard scored nine points in the first five minutes and change of the fourth quarter, building off of what Reagan Bass was able to do just a short time earlier. Jones' fourth quarter charge helped bring juice back into Mackey Arena and create some breathing room down the stretch.

Kendall Puryear and Sophie Swanson then added a pair of layups to extend a 15-0 run and take a 75-63 lead.

The Knights were scoreless for over seven minutes in the fourth quarter, shutting down any chance of an upset win in Mackey Arena, as the Boilermakers coasted to the victory in the final few minutes of play.

Senior forward Reagan Bass turned in her second-straight 20-point game, finishing with a game-high 21 points on 8-11 shooting, while also grabbing a game-high 11 rebounds, notching her first double-double in a Purdue uniform.

Rashunda Jones was integral in Purdue's fourth quarter response, scoring 13 of her season-high 15 points in the final frame. Jones finished the day shooting at a 75% clip and added a pair of assists as well.

Lana McCarthy turned in a bounce back performance after being held in check over the two previous outings, where she was held to eight points combined. She eclipsed that in the first half, with 11 points on 5-7 shooting and seven rebounds. She was held to just two points in the second half, but notched a double-double for the second time in four games, finishing with ten rebounds.

Sophie Swanson has also found her shooting stroke after struggling in the first two games of the year. She followed up her 17-point showing against IU Indy with a 13-point day on Monday, shooting 5-11 from the field.

Purdue shot 47.8% from the field and was just 5-20 from three-point range, as well as struggling from the charity stripe, going 9-17 on free throws.

Purdue will take its two-game winning streak into Sunday's matchup with UT Arlington.