ALTOONA, Pa.—After once again putting up a fight until the very end, the Franciscan University women's basketball team came up short losing to conference opponent Penn State Altoona 67-60.

After losing the lead in the first 12 minutes of the game the Lady Barons kept up with the Lions but were never able to close the deficit for good. The FUS offense created good shot opportunities throughout the game but shot only 29.7% from the field.

"I'm happy we had those looks and am confident we will cash those in in the future," head coach Suzy Delaney said. " We did attack on offense better in the second half."

The Lady Barons outscored the Lions 38-37 in the second half and closed the gap to three points twice in the second half including once in the final two minutes.

"We brought ourselves back into it and the girls kept up the pressure," Delaney said. "I was proud of them for making steals and capitalizing on them."

With 30 seconds left junior forward Lacey Huck made a 3-pointer to bring FUS within four but Franciscan ended up fouling to stop the clock and lost ground when the Lions made their free throws.

"We have to learn from each loss and move on," Delaney said. "We're going to keep working together and stay focused on team chemistry."

Adding to the chemistry of the team was junior guard Monica Dawyot who returned to the team after spending the fall semester abroad. Dawyot struggled to knock the rust off of her shot but was able to contribute four assists and three rebounds.

"It's great to have Monica back, she definitely gave us a lift especially on the defensive end," Delaney said. "She's a great team player and to have a player like that back is great to make things happen on the court."

Another newcomer to the day, sophomore Dani Link, played well in just her third game of NCAA basketball. Link finished with 15 points and four rebounds, adding an extra scoring threat to the already established duo of freshman guard Illiana Gonzalez and junior forward Huck.

Gonzalez, the leading scorer in the conference, finished with 19 points, improving on her 17 points per game average. Huck, the conference's leading rebounder and fourth leading scorer, fell one rebound shy of another double-double with 16 points and nine rebounds.

The Lady Barons continue their conference road trip on January 11 when they play Penn State Behrend at 4p.m. and then play Pitt-Bradford on Jan 12.

"We have two big games this weekend so we're going to keep focused and move on because we want to reach our goal of making the playoffs," Delaney said.