MARION, Ind. -- No. 6-ranked Indiana Wesleyan University and No. 8-ranked University of Saint Francis (Ind.) are now tied atop the Mid-Central College Conference women's basketball standings after Saint Francis defeated Indiana Wesleyan 76-65 on Wednesday night in Luckey Arena.

The top-10 nationally ranked teams are both 5-1 in MCC action and the co-leaders hold a 1.5 game advantage over third place Bethel (Ind.) College who is 4-3.

Saint Francis put the game out of reach when they opened the second half on a 15-4 run that built a six point halftime advantage into a 17 point lead at 47-30. Indiana Wesleyan never recovered in their first conference loss of the season.

Indiana Wesleyan was able to cut the deficit to single digits with less than five minutes to play. But Saint Francis, the top free throw shooting team in NAIA Division II, connected on 7-of-10 free throws down the stretch to thwart the comeback attempt. IWU would get no closer than six points (71-65) with 17 seconds remaining.

Cougar senior guard Julie Seiss was a major contributor in the USF victory. She finished with 29 points and hit 11-of-12 free throws. Junior guard Kayla Mullins added 17 as the Cougars shot 51.0-percent (26 of 51) as a team and 81.8-percent (18 of 22) from the foul line.

The Wildcats struggled to find consistent scoring on Wednesday outside of senior forward Elaine Hessel. She was the lone Wildcat in double figures with 19 points on 6-of-11 shooting. Hessel was 6-of-6 from the free throw line and pulled down five rebounds. Junior guard Ashley Brooks was second on the team with nine points.

In the first half, the two teams battled to three ties and four leads changes. Neither team led by more than four points until a Seiss field goal for Saint Francis put the Cougars in the lead by six at 28-22 with 3:46 left before half.

Saint Francis gained their largest lead of the opening half at eight points (32-24) before Hessel's field goal concluded the scoring in the period to send the teams into the locker rooms with a 32-26 score.

Indiana Wesleyan will return to action at 1 p.m. on Saturday, January 15 with a road game at Marian (Ind.) University in Indianapolis, Indiana. The next IWU home game will be next Wednesday, January 19 versus Grace (Ind.) College. That game will have a special start time of 5 p.m.