STEUBENVILLE, Ohio – The Lady Barons put in an incredibly gutsy effort losing to D'Youville College 59-55, after their only sub and key player Lauren Shaffer fell to an injury in the first half. Despite being forced to play almost the whole forty minutes without a sub the five girls remaining fought hard giving themselves an opportunity to win but fell shy by four points.

"I'm very proud of each and every one of those girls, they battled those whole forty minutes," head coach Suzy Delaney said. "It's a tough loss, but we talked to the girls about learning from the experience each time we take the floor and using those experiences to get better as a team and as an individual."

Both teams started off cold at the beginning of the game, unable to make any baskets in the first five minutes. Eventually Franciscan warmed up and they raced to a 17-8 lead with seven minutes left in the game. However, only nine minutes into the first half, freshman guard Lauren Shaffer went down with an injury; unable to play the rest of the game, the Barons were left with no subs.

With only five girls on the roster, Franciscan played tough defense, keeping the Spartans in check. Late in the half D'Youville made a run to keep the game close.

The Barons won the first half 37-27 putting themselves in a position to win. Despite keeping the lead, the last few minutes of the first half proved costly as a number of Lady Baron's picked fouls, leaving most of team with two or more fouls.

"We focused on playing smart and not giving up cheap fouls," Delaney said. "Having that mental toughness was the focus for the second half, more so with the foul trouble."

The Barons proved that they did have that mental toughness playing hard to the very end of the game and gave themselves an opportunity to win. Franciscan lost the lead but kept the score to within two up until the last five seconds of the game losing 59-55 in the end.

"We came up short and have to just see what we can take from this experience and see how it can make us better for the bulk of our conference schedule," Delaney said. "They are a strong group, and I'm proud of their balanced effort."

Almost all the Lady Barons made it into double-digit points with the exception of junior guard Helen Raines. Raines played more defensive, picking up four steals and igniting the team after coming off the bench. Captain Lacey Huck also kept up her consistency with her second double double in two days scoring seventeen points and grabbing seventeen rebounds.

The Barons come back after Christmas break to face Geneva College at home on Dec. 31, at 3pm.

"We expect the girls to continue doing what they've been doing, and give that same hard effort," Delaney said of their next game and looking ahead at conference play. "I expect them to take it from where we left off and keep pushing. Being in the top 6 of our conference is our goal, so we're focusing on that and trying to get better each time."