GREENSBURG, Pa.— The Franciscan University women's basketball team lost 59-51 to conference opponent University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg Wednesday night. Franciscan is now 2-1 in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference and 2-5 on the overall season.

"It was a hard fought game," head coach Suzy Delaney said. "In the first half our shots weren't falling but I'm proud of our team for responding and not backing down."

Franciscan put up a fight throughout the whole game. In the first half Franciscan struggled to make their shots and turned the ball over. Greensburg forced FUS to push hard as the bobcats shot well from the field throughout the first half.

"We've got to continue to improve on our mental focus and avoid getting turnovers and work on finishing our shots," Delaney said. "It's going to happen, it's just getting more experience to get there because we have a young team."

The Franciscan team went into halftime down by 14 points with a score of 41-27. In the final half of the game the FUS team didn't give up and continued to battle its way back, closing the gap as the game went on. Their efforts weren't enough, however, as FUS failed to catch up completely.

Delaney said she was proud of her team for not stopping in their efforts and pushing forward the whole 40 minutes.

In the second half Franciscan showed they wouldn't go down easily as they outscored Greensburg in the half. Franciscan had 24 points on the half while Greensburg scored 18.

"Everybody worked hard and everyone laid it on the line," Delaney said. "We just continued to battle especially on the defensive end."

On the defensive side sophomore Allyson Cooney, who took five charges in Franciscan's last game, took another 4 charges against the panthers. Not stopping there, Cooney added 13 points and 5 rebounds to her stat sheet.

Fellow sophomore Amy O'Keefe continued to show her ability to score consistently, getting 17 points and 9 rebounds. Another sophomore, Helen Raines added 10 points to the mix as well as adding 3 assists.

The Franciscan women's basketball team continues their AMCC season on Saturday Dec. 8 at 1p.m. at D'Youville College.