STEUBENVILLE, Ohio – Franciscan women's basketball stood toe-to-toe with the heavily favored College of Wooster in the first half of their early season matchup, but exhaustion and foul trouble caught up with FUS in the second half leading to an 82-63 loss.

The fouls and fatigue were both magnified and caused by the current low numbers on the Lady Baron's roster. While the Fighting Scots came into the game with a roster of 14 players, Franciscan's roster was limited to just six healthy girls. Four of those six are new to the program, making the game an uphill battle from the start.

"We're asking a lot of these six players," Head coach Suzy Delaney said. "The margin of error is magnified when you have a small bench."

From the tip, Franciscan was able to play within that small margin of error and hang with the bigger, undefeated Wooster team. Despite also having a height disadvantage, the Lady Baron's overwhelming hustle kept them almost even with the Scots in rebounding the first half.

The second chance points and an aggressive defense consistently kept Franciscan within three or four points for majority of the first twenty minutes.

"The first half we were real tight with them," Delany said. "I felt like our effort was there but we had three girls who played 40 minutes and the most minutes one of their players played was 25."

The second half was when Franciscan's lack of depth began to take its toll. Starting guard Lauren Shaffer picked up a fourth foul early, forcing FUS to play with the same five for most of the final 20 minutes. With a roster full of fresh legs, the Fighting Scots began to dominate the glass and were also able to knock down a game total of thirteen three pointers when Franciscan couldn't close out on their shooters.

"Right away we picked up a fourth foul and had to sub out a tenacious defender and then we got good looks but we didn't cash them in," Delany said. "Wooster is a good team and they're good training for us and we battled them every time down the court."

Two of Franciscan's 40 minute players where junior forward Lacey Huck and freshman guard Iliana Gonzalez. Huck finished the game with a now almost expected double-double, scoring 13 points and grabbing 14 rebounds while Gonzalez led the team with 21 points.

Another standout was freshman guard Katie Rhodes who more than doubled her season scoring total with a 16 point performance, including four three-point field goals.

"She played well. She looked for her shot, looked for her offense and definitely happy with that," Delaney said of Rhodes who only had 10 points total heading into the game.

Franciscan continues to wait for their starting point guard Rara Gomez to get healthy and to continue to improve and grow while preparing for conference play in the second half of the season.

"What can we take away? That always has to be our mindset going in," Delaney said. "All of our girls can play at this high of a level. We just have to stay positive and keep battling."

Franciscan goes back on the road for their next game, playing Grove City College on November 26, at 6 pm.