CHICAGO - All-Tournament team member Julie Schiffler (Nazareth Academy/La Grange Park, IL)scored a game-high 18 points to lead University of St. Francis to a third-place finish in the Saint Xavier University Women's Basketball Christmas Tournament with a 66-55 victory over Grace College (IN) on Wednesday evening at the Shannon Center.

Schiffler -- who averaged 14.3 points per game in the three-day, eight-team tournament - added 6 assists and a career-high 7 rebounds to her statistical line in the game which USF led from start to finish.

The Saints (7-10) pulled away from a 13-12 lead 13 minutes into the game and used a run of 7-0 to push their margin to eight at 20-12. USF led by as many as 12 points in the first half and went to the locker room with a 27-17 advantage.

USF quickly expanded the lead in the second half to as much as 21 points at 46-25 and never let the Lancers (10-5) get closer than within the final margin of 11 points the rest of the way.

Schiffler got strong scoring support from junior guard Michelle Karr (Providence Catholic H.S./Tinley Park, IL) and freshman post Caitlin Cody (Mother McAuley H.S./Chicago, IL) who each contributed 12 points. Karr also added 8 rebounds for her strongest performance of the three-game tourney.

Sophomore forward Molly Bardson (Ottawa H.S./Grand Ridge, IL) had a personal string of three straight double-doubles snapped. She did, though, grab 9 rebounds and collected 6 points to help the winning effort.

The Saints are now off until a week from Saturday when they open Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference play with a road game vs. Roosevelt University at Illinois Tech's Keating Center in Chicago on Jan. 8.

USF has placed third in the SXU Christmas tourney each of the past two years after finishing second in 2008.