Franciscan 56, Illinois Wesleyan 88

Franciscan Starters 
Jazzlyn Melnyk, Abbigail Jannuzi, Hannah Johnson, Lucy Wilkinson, & Emma Clow 

How It Happened 
    Franciscan Women's Basketball traveled to Holland, MI for the Hope College tournament, the Barons' second tournament of the 2025 season. For their first game on Friday night, they faced the Illinois Wesleyan Titans. The Titans came into the match still early in their season with a record of 1-1. Last year, the Titans lost in the NCAA Sweet 16.
    The Barons faced a full-court press from the opening tip. In the 1st quarter, they handled the pressure well and capitalized on the over extended defense by finding open shots near the rim. The Barons shot a staggering 58% from the field for the 1st quarter in large due to those easy layup opportunities. 
    Like many teams live and die by the three, some teams live and die by the press. The Titans were no different, they stuck in the press even though the Barons were breaking it easily. Eventually, tired legs succumbed to the pressure and turnovers began to pile up. There's an interesting relationship between offense and defense in basketball which is accentuated when a team is pressing all game. When you get easy opportunities and score, it allows your team to get back on defense, catch their breath, and make scoring difficult for the opponent. Then without the opponent scoring it's hard for them to get into a press, which makes your offensive possession easier. That momentum is the dream for any team facing a press. What inevitably happens against a pressing team is you turn the ball over, they get a quick transition basket, then are in perfect position for the press. That cycle can be extremely difficult to get out of and often requires a player to make an all-star play to drag your team out of that negative momentum. Unfortunately for the Barons, they got that effort from a handful of their players, but unluckily couldn't capitalize offensively and got stuck in that rut for most of the remaining three quarters. What was a tight 1st quarter slowly eroded to a 30-point deficit by the end of regulation.
    The Barons were back the next day to face another national contender in Carthage College. The Hope College tournament is a prime opportunity for the young and talented Baron squad to gauge what championship basketball looks like and where to set their aim going forward.

Inside the Numbers 
- Melnyk added another double-double to her career total with 13 pts and 11 rebs
- Magdalen Simon led the star-studded freshman with 12 pts and 5 rebs

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Franciscan 50, Carthage 70

Franciscan Starters 
Jazzlyn Melnyk, Abbigail Jannuzi, Hannah Johnson, Lucy Wilkinson, & Emma Clow

How It Happened 
    Franciscan Women's Basketball battled Carthage in their second game in Michigan. Jazzlyn Melnyk led the way with another double double, but the Barons fell to 3-5 on the young season.
    The Barons started out the first quarter by shooting 60% from beyond the arc. Melnyk made a pair of those to help the Barons score 12 points in the opening 10 minutes. Carthage was coming off a toss loss to Hope the night before, and they were firing on all cylinders. They scored 38 points in the opening half, as the Barons trailed by 16 points at halftime.
    The second half was played pretty even, and Coach Iliana Spoelman was able to get a lot of young players some valuable minutes. Gemma Biasutto scored nine points off the bench, including 5-6 shooting from the free throw line. Abbigail Januzzi made four three pointers, as she continued her streak of 2+ made three point field goals in each game this season. There were a lot of positives to take away for Franciscan in their first road trip to the Great Lakes State

Inside the Numbers 
- Melnyk has five double doubles this season.
- Januzzi still leads the Barons in scoring at 12.1 ppg.
- The Barons made 10 three-point field goals, the most since December 4, 2019 when they made 10 against Mount Aloysius.

Up Next 
Franciscan returns home to take on Penn State Beaver on Tuesday at 1:00 p.m. This will be the Barons last non-conference test of the the season. The Barons are in search of their first win all-time against the Lions, but this will be the first time that they have played them since the 2011-12 season.

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