STEUBENVILLE, Ohio— The Franciscan University women's basketball team fell to the third-ranked team in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference, Penn State Behrend, by a final score of 58-31. FUS is now 2-3 in the AMCC and 3-9 overall on the season.

Franciscan was down on the scoreboard from the tip, and despite aggressive defense, could not make a successful comeback on the offensive side.

"We played aggressively on the defensive end but weren't able to translate that consistency to our offensive game," head coach Suzy Delaney said. "We weren't able to finish even though we did get some good shots and take some good shots."

There was a drastic difference in offensive field goal percentage between the two teams, with the visiting Lady Lions shooting 44% overall from the field, and the Lady Barons shot 24%.

"It's hard to gain momentum when you're having a rough shooting night," Delaney said. "So I think as hard as we were working on defense we still weren't able to nail our shots."

Displaying the hard work on defense were sophomore Helen Raines and freshman Monica Dawyot with four and three steals, respectively. Dawyot also was the team's high scorer with 10 points on the game.

"Helen played some pretty solid defense that showed up in those four steals. She and Monica are pretty consistent for the team," Delaney said. "Some of their steals helped to make some key stops on defense for us."

Both teams struggled taking care of the ball, as FUS and Behrend had 25 and 24 turnovers, respectively.

Another factor in the first half was the fact that team captain Lacey Huck was forced to go to the bench early as she received three fouls.

"When something like that happens it throws the team off sync a little so we need to be better at adjusting and being ready and continue each person giving their best," Delaney said.

The Lady Barons play again tomorrow on its home court at 1 p.m. against conference opponent University of Pittsburgh at Bradford.

"We get to play again tomorrow and we look forward to another conference game," Delaney said. "We will continue to improve and move forward in the conference season and get better each time we take the court."