STEUBENVILLE, Ohio – Franciscan University's women's basketball team walked away with a 70-57 loss against conference opponent University of Pitt–Greensburg after battling through a competitive second half.

The Greensburg Bobcats took the lead from the start, with quick offensive moves but the Lady Barons were fast to respond and recover from some early turnovers. Although FUS consistently gained possessions off of Bobcat mistakes, they were never able to convert enough offense in to defense and take the lead. The teams bounced back and forth with Greensburg staying ahead at least five points throughout the first half.

"Some of our shots just didn't fall," head coach Suzy Delaney said. "You are going to have those times when you aren't making the shot and that happened. We were right there with them though, and we put ourselves in that position to win."

The second half started out 35-32, with Franciscan in the position to pull ahead. The Lady Barons stepped up their play to fully match the intensity of the Bobcats, but their run did not take them far enough.

"I'm proud of how the girls battled and played hard, especially in the second half," Delaney said. "We made a run ourselves to get into it, to cut it to being only one point, and we were sustaining it but then they made a nice little run to end it."

Although the game ended in a loss, Delaney said she was happy with how the Lady Barons battled for the whole 40 minutes, staying competitive throughout. Captains Lacey Huck and Helen Raines played pivotal roles in keeping the team focused in the close second half. Huck scored 11 points and Raines scored 10.

"Our two captains led us well, especially in the second half," Delany said. "They established our hard play that we had in the second half."

Freshman point guard Rara Gomez was also an important player on the court, coming off of an injury and playing for the first time this season. Gomez contributed 13 points while fellow freshman guard Illiana Gonzales scored 19.

"I saw a lot of good things out there," Delaney said. "I feel like our biggest strength was our hustle the whole game. We didn't give up and we kept battling the whole time and I know we are just going to keep getting better."

After falling short of the win, Delaney plans to fine tune both offensive and defensive skills in the next week of practice in order to be better prepared to face the next competitor.

"We are going to work a lot before our next two games in order to finish out this semester strong and go into Christmas break with solid momentum," Delaney said.

The Lady Barons play next at home against Hilbert College on December 14 at 4 pm.