HAMBURG, N.Y. – In a very defensive-minded game, the Franciscan women's basketball team rose to the occasion to outlast Hilbert College 49-40.  

"Today was a great win," head coach Suzy Delaney said. "Neither team shot the ball well so our defense and rebounding really got this one for us."

Hilbert's defense started out strong, holding the Lady Barons scoreless for the first 3:12 of the game before senior guard Iliana Gonzales made a three-pointer to tie the game up at three. Just over a minute later, sophomore forward Bernadette Roach made a jump shot to give Franciscan a 5-3 lead, a lead the Lady Barons maintained for the rest of the game.

Then Franciscan's defense stepped up to end the first quarter, holding the Hawks to only five points in the quarter while the Lady Barons finished on a 6-0 run. Freshman guard Raegan Stead scored all of her five points in the final 1:30 of the quarter.

Both teams continued to struggle offensively, shooting around 30 percent in the second quarter. However, Hilbert outscored the Lady Barons 13-11 in the quarter, only trailing by four points at halftime.

Coming out of the locker room, senior guard Monica Dawyot gave the Lady Barons a boost on both ends of the court – rebounding the basketball, dishing out assists and coming up with steals. Behind Dawyot's extra effort, Franciscan built up a 10-point lead at the end of the quarter. 

"When you have a senior like Monica who exhausts herself for her team leading the way, you can find a way to win these types of games," Delaney said. "She knew this would be a dogfight and took the lead, grinding out this victory."

While the Lady Barons could not hold on to the double-digit lead in the fourth quarter, the team's defense stepped up once again to make sure the Hawks would not steal the win from underneath them, winning by a total of nine points.

Gonzales and sophomore center Lucia Westrick led the Lady Barons with 13 points each while sophomore guard Sarah Schriner was not far behind, contributing 12 points of her own.

Dawyot led the team in about every other category, finishing the night with 13 rebounds, seven steals and five assists.

The Lady Barons avenged an 11-point loss to Hilbert earlier in the season to move to 6-12 on the season and 5-7 in the AMCC, overtaking the Hawks for sixth place in the conference. Only six more games remain as Franciscan seeks the program's second appearance in the AMCC postseason tournament.

Franciscan will travel to take on the Bobcats of Pitt.-Greensburg on Wednesday, February 3, at 8 p.m. Greensburg currently sits in fifth place in the conference with an AMCC record of 6-6, one of those losses coming at the hands of the Lady Barons in early January.