ST. FRANCIS – Three players with 20 or more points and another double-double from the starting five was still not enough offense for women's basketball in its 98-91 loss to NAIA DII No. 4 St. Francis (Ind.) in the season opener. The Bears led 45-36 at the half before the Cougars get red hot and shot .676 (23-of-34) from the field in the second half and scored 62 points over the final 20 minutes to power past the Bears.
Diane Abbady scored a team-high 23 points for the Bears while Alannah Sheets and Priscila Santos each scored 21 points in the opener. The Bears also got a double-double from Ali Zieverink as she added 12 points and 12 rebounds in her first career start. For the Cougars, five different players finished with double figure scoring totals. Skylarr Shurn would end up leading all scorers with a game-high 28 points to lead her team to victory.
The Bears started quickly as they held an eight point lead just under four minutes into the contest with the score 12-4. The Cougars would come back and lead themselves by eight at 33-25 with 6:33 to go in the opening half but Shawnee State would have the final run.
Trailing 36-34 with 3:18 to play in the opening half, Shawnee State scored the final 11 points of the first half to take a nine point lead into the locker room. That lead would end up being their largest of the game. The 11-0 run capped a stretch that saw the Bears score 16 of the final 17 points in the opening 20 minutes.
Shawnee State held its lead until there was 12:30 on the clock before St. Francis took a one point edge. The Cougars would keep the offensive tempo high and built their own lead up to nine points after a Shurn three with 6:12 on the clock.
With the score 87-79 and 4:26 showing on the clock, the Bears would cut that deficit down to one after Santos went 1-of-2 from the charity stripe with 2:33 showing on the clock. However, the Cougars quickly stopped the brief momentum swing and made a quick 6-0 run to go up 94-88 before hitting their free throws at the end of regulation to secure the victory.
Shawnee State shot 35-of-66 from the field and hit eight three balls in the contest while St. Francis went 38-of-67 from the field with just three baskets from behind the arc. However, the Cougars got to the free throw line 25 times and made 19 of those chances while the Bears went 13-of-15 from the line. St. Francis also held a 50-34 advantage on points in the paint.
Women's basketball will face another tough challenge tomorrow as the team closes its opening weekend of play vs. No. 16 Bethel Saturday at 1 p.m.
