[Women's Basketball] Women's Basketball Edged by Wolves in Conference Tilt

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The Indiana University South Bend women's basketball team squandered a 12-point lead on Saturday as they fell to Cardinal Stritch University by a score of 81-78. Taylor Wesley (SO/South Bend, Indiana) matched her career-high with 21 points off the bench for the Titans. Wesley connected on five-of-six attempts from long distance in the loss.

IU South Bend fell behind early, but a three-point play from Vicki Gard (SO/Schererville, Indiana) at the 4:59 mark in the opening frame evened the game at 12. The Titans finished the quarter on a 10-2 run to boost its lead to 22-14 after 10 minutes of action.

Wesley gave the Titans their first double-digit lead of the night when she drained a triple on the kick out from Taitlyn Trenshaw (FR/Nappanee, Indiana), putting IU South Bend up by 12 with less than two minutes to go before halftime. Stritch cut their deficit in half and capped the second quarter off with a last-second triple from Maranda Huibregtse.

Jess Alexander (SR/Granger, Indiana) started the scoring for the Titans in the third quarter but IU South Bend went cold as Stritch regained the lead as part of a 12-4 run to start the frame. Three consecutive possessions with a three-point basket helped the Titans build a five-point lead midway through the quarter. The Wolves scored on the final possession of the quarter to trim the Titan lead to one point.

The final quarter went back-and-forth and featured three ties and three lead changes. With just under four minutes left to play the score was even at 72 and the Wolves used a 7-0 run to take a 79-72 edge with 47 seconds on the clock.

Things got interesting as Kyleigh Kubik (SO/LaPorte, Indiana) drained back-to-back three's to make in a one possession game with 17 seconds left. IU South Bend forced a Stritch turnover on the inbound and got two looks from deep to tie it but could not convert in the final seconds.

Kubik finished with 20 points.

Stritch dominated the glass as they outrebounded the Titans 42-31 including 18 offensive boards resulting in 19 second-chance points.

IU South Bend falls to 12-6 overall and 3-5 in Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference action. The Titans will return to the hardwood on Wednesday as they travel to 14th-ranked University of St. Francis on Wednesday.