JOLIET, Ill. --- Win No. 9 against No. 9.

Winners of eight straight contests and nine games overall, University of St. Francis pulled off its biggest upset of the season Saturday night downing NAIA II No. 9-ranked Bethel College (Ind.) in just the Saints' third home game of the season at the Patrick J. Sullivan Center. 

USF (9-2) built a 16-point halftime advantage that was extended to 19 points after the break before the Saints held off a late Bethel rally to cap off a busy five-day stretch in which head coach Brian Michalak's club secured three wins.  Included was a 69-60 victory over NCAA II Lewis University just two nights earlier on the road.     

St. Francis relied on balanced scoring yet again to get the job done with four players netting double figures highlighted by freshman forward Katie Gonnering (Freedom H.S./Seymour, WI).  She hit for 20 points for the second time this season with near-pinpoint accuracy.  From the field, Gonnering converted six of her eight shots, while from the foul line she was 8-for-9.  She also grabbed a game-high nine rebounds.

Senior guard Brandi Pudik (Kankakee C.C./Washington, IL) also came up big scoring a season-high 16 points, while senior forward Michelle Karr (Providence Catholic H.S./Tinley Park, IL) came off the bench to total 11 points and seven rebounds.

Freshman guard Cydney Weisflog (Oak Creek H.S./Oak Creek, WI) closed out the list of double-figure scorers with 10 markers.

Two runs in the first half as well as Bethel being held to just 24 percent shooting in the opening 20 minutes (6-of-25) proved to be the difference in the end.  After forcing the sixth tie of the game with 12:24 remaining in the opening half, the Saints went on a 14-4 run and followed that up with an 11-3 push to close the half with a 37-21 advantage.   

Bethel's poor shooting was due in large part to its inability to score from long range, where the Pilots were just 1-for-12 in the opening half.  St. Francis shot 40 percent from the field in the first half (10-of-25), but gained most of its ground by going 14-for-17 from the foul line in the first 20 minutes.

Bethel forced 11 second-half turnovers to pull within single digits in the closing four minutes, but the Saints had just enough defense and a strong shooting mark from the field in the second half (9-of-16, .563) to hold off the Pilots handing them just their second setback of the season against 11 wins and their first loss in eight games. 

The Saints, however, did get hit with one of their own setbacks when senior starter Julie Schiffler (Nazareth Academy/LaGrange Park, IL) went down with a serious knee injury with 4:31 to play.  Schiffler had tallied seven points and eight rebounds up to that point.  She was the Saints' second-leading scorer (15.1 ppg) heading into Saturday's contest.

USF will test its six-game road winning streak over the course of the next three weeks when it closes out December with six straight road contests.  The first of those dates is next Saturday (Dec. 17) when the Saints square off against NCAA III No.13-ranked Illinois Wesleyan University.  Game time is 5 p.m. in Bloomington.