STEUBENVILLE, Ohio – It was the perfect ending to the season and the perfect way to send out senior Helen Raines, as Franciscan women's basketball defeated the University of Pitt. – Bradford 64-58.

The win gives the Lady Barons their best record as full NCAA members, finishing the overall season at 5-19.

"I'm just so excited we won it!" Head Coach Suzy Delaney said about ending the season on a high note. "We had a huge stretch there of losses and I'm just so thrilled to have this game and win it for Helen."

While it was senior night for FUS it was a freshman that got things started. Forward Katie Rhodes had the hot hand to start, scoring seven of Franciscan's first nine points and she didn't cool off for the duration of the first half.

Rhodes was perfect from the field in the first 20 minutes and her 13 points gave the Lady Barons a 33-30 lead at the half.

"They started doing a little bit of a box-and-one on her and she's never been singled out like that in a game before," Delaney said. "She did the same thing at their place. She had 18 and she nailed the threes when she got an open look."

While Rhodes cooled off in the second half, sophomore Dani Link and freshman Iliana Gonzalez kept the good shooting night going. Link started the second half with a barrage of mid-range jumpers and Franciscan jumped out to a ten-point lead.

Link finished with 14 points while Gonzalez, the team's leading scorer, had a game-high 17 points most of which came in the second half. Junior forward and team captain Lacey Huck added another 14 points, giving Franciscan a balanced attack with a quartet of double-digit scorers.

"It was a team win and they all stepped up when they needed to," Delaney said. "I'm just so proud of them for the ability to just keep fighting and keep battling."

The win ended a 12 game losing streak, which followed three wins in ten days for the FUS program. Franciscan started the season with just two returning players but was given a boost from a talented freshman class that included Rhodes and Gonzalez.

"Even without the wins I really felt like we raised the level of our program," Delaney said. "But it's so tough to say because you measure things by wins and losses. So it was very sweet to win this one, particularly for Helen."

The game did tighten up towards the end but it was the senior Helen Raines who hit two big free throws with 20 seconds left to give Franciscan a two-score lead.

"She's just so dependable that's why we wanted the ball in her hands," Delaney said about trusting Raines in the final minutes. "She just put that final statement in the game and she took care of it."

Franciscan not only finished with one win better than the season before but also posted their best conference record as full NCAA members. The Lady Barons are set to return all their players except for Raines and hope to carry the momentum from their final win into next season.