Hamburg, NY - The D'Youville Women's Basketball Team failed to get back in the win column Wednesday evening after falling to the host Hilbert Hawks 73-65.

The D'Youville offense got our to a hot start on Hawks home court. A combined 8 points from Dannette Laguerre (Buffalo, NY/Hutch Tech) and Alexis Smith (Hamburg, NY/Hamburg) gave D'Youville an early lead. Jean-Ann Korona (Washingtonville, NY/Washingtonville) scored on a layup to give D'Youville a 12-3 lead six minutes into the game. The Spartans shared the ball well in the first half, with first 20 points coming from 6 different players.

Hilbert's offense would begin to pick-up the pace, but a three-pointer by Awilda Murphy (Kenmore, NY/Sacred Heart Academy) gave the Spartans a 12 point lead with under 7 minutes to go in the first. Alexis Smith pushed the lead to 13 roughly 2 minutes later. The Hawks closed the lead to 11 to end the first half, trailing 38-27.

The Hawks opened up the second half applying heavy offensive pressure. Before the Spartans could score a basket, Hilbert tied the score at 38-38 with just under 5 minutes gone in the second half. D'Youville retook the lead and held it for 3 minutes until the home team took the lead for the first time since the game's first minutes. Despite their hot start, D'Youville's offense didn't have the same effectiveness in the second half, scoring only 10 points in the first 15 minutes of the second half.

Bridget Andrews (Amherst, NY/Sacred Heart Academy) and Amanda Marcely (Syracuse, NY/Bishop Grimes) attempted to get the team back in the game with a combined 16 points along with 8 from Alexis Smith. However, Hilbert would take their lead all the way to the final whistle, defeating the Spartans 73-65. 

Alexis Smith was the D'Youville leading scorer with 18 points. Smith was second on the team in rebounding with 9. Leading the team in rebounds with 20 was Amanda Marcely, who also led the team with 4 assists and scored 17 points. Bridget Andrews had 8 points to go with her 2 rebounds, steals, assists and blocks.

Captain Casey Bartels (Massapequa, NY/Massapequa) had 2 points, assists and rebounds off the bench. Jean-Ann Korona led all bench players with 4 points and 5 rebounds. Dannette Laguerre and Awilda Murphy both scored 7 points.

D'Youville will look to break their losing streak this coming Saturday, January 31st as they head to La Roche to play the Redhawks at 1pm.