STEUBNENVILLE, Ohio— Franciscan University women's basketball team won its first game of the season against conference opponent Hilbert College with a final score of 84-72. With an overall team effort and a defense that acted as a catalyst for the offense, the Lady Barons showed what they are capable of.

"We just kept pushing hard the whole game," head coach Suzy Delaney said. "I'm really proud of the girls for playing tough throughout the 40 minutes and not giving up, especially on the defense."

The Lady Barons' defensive aggression held the Hawks to only a few minutes in the lead for the second half of the game. Franciscan's 20 steals helped keep the energy flowing on the offensive side of the court.

"I felt like our defense lifted us," Delaney said. "It was more aggressive than it's been and that's evident by the steals because getting those steals created some offense and we took that momentum and finished the game strong."

Throughout the game Franciscan would increase their lead up to 10 points at a time, but each time Hilbert closed the gap and Franciscan worked to pull away again. At the end of the first half Hilbert surged forward going into halftime at 40-36, but Franciscan managed to hold them by keeping the momentum flowing in the second half.

"As we were building our lead we had a couple sequences where we would score and then force the turnover right away helping to ignite our offense," Delaney said.

The forced turnovers came from many Franciscan players but freshman Iliana Gonzales stepped up and led the team with 8 steals and an impressive 23 points. Freshman Lauren Shaffer also made a difference with her 3 steals and shutting down one of Hilbert's top scorers.

"You know you always first go to look at who had the most points but several of our girls had some good stats in a more than one of the categories," Delaney said.

All around solid play from each of the 6 teammates gave Franciscan the energy to push through to the end. Point guard Cassandra Gomez gave the team an all around solid game with 15 points, 7 rebounds and 4 steals.

Captain Lacey Huck did not disappoint as she earned another double double scoring 23 points, getting 12 rebounds and four steals. Huck also ended up fouling out with 4 minutes left in the game.

"It was a different role for her being on the sideline," Delaney said. "The other girls responded with poise and took care of business."

With less than a 24-hour break the Franciscan players hope to carry that poise and momentum from this game to their game December 15 at home against D'Youville at 3pm.

"We're happy to get our first win and we're ready to keep pushing and get number 2 tomorrow," Delaney said. "We want to keep raising our level of our play for each individual and for our whole team."