Steubenville, OH – The D'Youville women's basketball team was defeated by the host Franciscan Barons on Saturday afternoon by the final score of 49-38.

Both teams struggled on offense in the first quarter. After nearly four minutes of play, the Barons had a 9-2 advantage over the Spartans. The two teams would combine for four points throughout the remainder of the quarter as Franciscan led 11-4 after one period of play.

Quarter number two was vastly different than the first for D'Youville. CeDrice Howard (University Place, WA/Curtis) was the go-to option on offense for the Spartans, scoring five of the first seven points for the team as D'Youville closed their deficit to one at 11-10. Hannah Simone (Rochester, NY/Bishop Kearney) drilled a three to give the Spartans their first lead of the game at 13-11. D'Youville continue to ramp up their offense as they outscored Franciscan 21-4 in the quarter and took a 25-15 into halftime.

It was a different story for the Spartans in the third quarter. The Barons went on a 10-0 scoring run to start the third to tie the game at 25-25. Over the next several minutes, D'Youville would fight off the Barons to keep their lead at 30-29 after a made Jordan Smith (Hamburg, NY/Hamburg) jumper. However Franciscan would outscore the Spartans 16-5 in the quarter and lead 31-30 after three.

The offensive struggles of the D'Youville offense plagued them into the fourth and final quarter of play. Franciscan took a 38-33 lead with 6:48 in the game, but the team's would combine for one point over the next three minutes. Monica June (Buffalo, NY/Hutch Tech) made it a four-point game with 3:39 to go in regulation, but the Barons would extend their lead to 12 with under a minute to go. They would close out their comeback effort by taking the game 49-38 over the Spartans.

Howard led the team with 12 points, adding seven rebounds with three steals. June added a team high 11 points off the bench with four rebounds and three steals. Ali Cochrane (New Port Richey, FL/Gulf) had a team high five steals, with Darian Evans (Brant, NY/Lake Shore) bringing in a team high nine rebounds.

The next game for the women comes on Wednesday, February 15 at Medaille. Start time for the game is at 6pm.