St. Francis (IL) News
Thu, Feb. 3, 2011 - [Women's Basketball]
Julie Schiffler led USF with 15 points and added 9 rebounds.
Julie Schiffler led USF with 15 points and added 9 rebounds.

JOLIET, Ill. - No. 18-ranked Saint Xavier University placed three scorers in double figures and took advantage of some frigid University of St. Francis shooting to pull away to a 76-61 Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference women's basketball victory Thursday night at the Sullivan Center.

USF (7-16, 0-4) lost its sixth straight game and shot just 30.5 percent from the floor (18-of-59) in its first action in two weeks.The Saints were nearly as cold from the free throw line, making just 56.4 percent (22-of-39) of their charity tosses.

The game was tied at 16-16 with 14:26 left in the opening half when SXU made its first offensive run of the evening. The Cougars (15-6, 3-1) scored the next 13 points to open a 29-16 lead and finished the half on a 33-10 spurt that gave the visitors a comfortable 49-26 lead at the intermission.

St. Francis opened the second half with a 15-3 run of its own to close the gap to a manageable 11 points at 52-41 with 15:00 left on the clock.But SXU quickly answered that run with one of its own, scorning the next nine points to re-establish a 20-point lead at 61-41.

USF managed to cut the lead back down to a dozen points one more time at 63-51 but could never get the deficit down to single digits.

Junior guard Julie Schiffler (Nazareth Academy/La Grange Park, IL) led USF with 15 points despite suffering through a poor shooting (3-of-17) night.She narrowly missed a double-double with a team-high 9 rebounds. Junior forward Molly Bardson (Ottawa H.S./Grand Ridge, IL) also came close to a double-double with 11 points and she matched Schiffler with 9 boards. Junior guard Michelle Karr (Providence Catholic H.S./Tinley Park, IL) added 10 points.

SXU senior guard Alex Barone returned home to Joliet and led all scorers in the game with 18 points. Shalonda Young added 17 for the Cougars and Marissa Young finished with 12 points and a game-high 10 rebounds.

The Saints will try to snap their six-game skid on Saturday afternoon when they travel to South Bend, Ind., for a noon (CST) tipoff at Indiana University South Bend.