PITTSBURGH - La Roche College avenged an earlier loss to the Franciscan women's basketball team earlier in the season by beating the Lady Barons 73-56 the second time around.

The Lady Barons handed the Redhawks its first conference loss back in January, a 76-69 upset in Steubenville. It was also the first time that Franciscan had beaten La Roche in program history.

Having tasted success once already this season, the Lady Barons knew what it would take to knock off the Redhawks a second time.

However, La Roche's two stars - Sabrina McLin and Tichina Mitchell - had an explosive first quarter, scoring a combined 13 of the team's 21 points, and gave the Redhawks an eight point advantage after 10 minutes of play.

Senior guard Iliana Gonzales made a layup to start a more competitive second quarter as the Redhawks only took a double-digit lead at the 6:42 mark. The lead continued to hover around 10 points for the rest of the quarter as the Redhawks went into the locker room up 39-27.

La Roche opened up the third quarter on a 5-0 run before sophomore guard Sarah Schriner made a layup at the 7:13 mark. However, the Lady Barons defense struggled to keep McLin and Mitchell at bay as the built up a 21-point lead at the end of the third quarter.

The fourth quarter finished in the Lady Barons favor as Franciscan outscored La Roche 16-12 in the final 10 minutes.

Gonzales led the Lady Barons in both points scored and rebounds with 19 points and six rebounds. Schriner was the next leading scorer with nine points. For La Roche, both McLin and Mitchell contributed 24 points for a combined 48 points, just eight points shy than the Lady Barons point total on the night.

With one game remaining, Franciscan sits in a tie for seventh place with a conference record of 6-11 and an overall record of 6-17.

Gonzales and the team's other two seniors - Stephanie Pahren and Monica Dawyot - will be have their Senior Day on Saturday, February 20, at 3 p.m., the team's last game of the season.