Health & Fitness
USF Women's Hoops Falls by One Point on the Road
Saints close out four-game road stint.
DEERFIELD, Ill. --- The University of St. Francis women's basketball team rallied from an 18-point first-half deficit, but Trinity International University went on a late 5-0 run to edge the Saints, 69-68, in a Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference matchup Saturday night at the Meyer Sports Complex. | Box Score
Trinity International (11-15, 5-14 CCAC) opened up a 33-15 advantage in the game's first 13:36, but the Saints were able to cut that deficit down to 39-32 by halftime with a 15-4 run in the closing five minutes. Freshman Mary Jackson (Charleston, Ill./ Charleston) sparked the turnaround off the bench with all seven of her points in that time span.
St. Francis (11-14, 10-8 CCAC) continued to inch closer in the second half before taking its first lead since the early minutes of the opening half when freshman Debra Jenkins (Chicago, Ill./ Morgan Park) hit the back end of a two-shot foul to make it a 47-46 game with 12:01 to play.
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After one more exchange of leads, the Saints built up their biggest advantage of the night, 60-55, with 3:57 remaining. USF, however, failed to convert at the free throw line down the stretch missing seven of its final 10 charity shots in the closing five minutes.
Abigail Hemmeger's three-pointer with 1:18 to play gave Trinity International the lead back for good, 67-65, and Diamond Richardson followed with two free throws at the 47-second mark. St. Francis got one free throw back from Jenkins three seconds later and sophomore Katie Gonnering (Seymour, Wis./ Freedom) added a jumper at the buzzer, but it still left USF one point short in the end.
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TIU's Brittany Simon led all scorers with 17 points. She also registered five assists, the same number as teammate DeAndre Wright, who added 10 points. Richardson also had 13 points for the winners.
St. Francis picked up 16 points and eight rebounds from Gonnering, both of which were team highs. Freshman LaTrece Harris (Chicago, Ill./ Bogan) added 14 points with Jenkins contributing 11.
The loss closed out a four-game road trip for the Saints, who host NAIA No. 8-ranked Saint Xavier University Wednesday night at 5 p.m. at the Sullivan Center.
