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FORT WAYNE,
Ind. –
The University of Saint Francis women's basketball team
opened its defense of the Mid-Central Conference title with
a 67-49 win over visiting Spring Arbor University. The
victory moves the Lady Cougars to 7-1 (1-0 MCC) on the
season while SAU dropped to 1-7 (0-1 MCC).
"I do not
think we started out very well. We gave [Spring Arbor] some
open looks and they knocked them down," USF head coach Gary
Andrews said. "After that I thought we settled down and
played pretty good defense. I was happy with the fact we
held them to 49 points for the game after that shaky start
defensively."
SAU led,
albeit narrowly, for much of the opening 20 minutes. Spring
Arbor held its largest margin at 14-8 with 13:55 to play in
the stanza after back-to-back field goals from Kara Buehrer
and Amber Huffman. Spring Arbor did not trail until a
Chivonn Keppeler bucket put USF on top 17-16 at the 5:39
mark. The Lady Cougars closed the half on a 12-4 run and
held a 30-22 advantage in the locker room.
USF and SAU
combined to make just 18 first-half field goals. The Lady
Cougars shot just 37% from the floor and came up empty on
six three-point tries.
USF attempted
to open it up at the start of the second period, bursting
ahead by 18 on two Jessica Hathaway foul shots just under
three minutes into the half. SAU countered with three
unanswered field goals, cutting the margin to 12 before
Buehrer's trifecta at 11:06 trimmed the cushion to seven,
45-38.
That would be
as close as the visiting Cougars would come, however, as USF
outscored SAU 10-3 in the final six minutes. The Lady
Cougars improved their field goal connection rate to 59% in
the last 20, finishing at 48% for the contest.
Nikki Lewis
led the USF offensive effort with 18 points while Buerher
netted a game-high 24 for Spring Arbor. Hathaway followed
Lewis with 12 points and a game-high nine boards. Marie
Kauffman added nine points off the Lady Cougar bench.
USF hits the
hardwood at Hutzell Athletic Center again Saturday, Nov. 25
at 2 p.m. versus Cornerstone University.
--
GO USF -- |
