MARION, IND. - No. 2 Indiana Wesleyan women's basketball suffered their first loss of the season on Saturday, falling to No. 14 University of Saint Francis (Ind.) 64-56. IWU fell behind early and trailed 17-4 after the first quarter, they fought back to make tie the game in the third. The Wildcats were never able to grab a lead however and ran out of gas late in the fourth.
 

THE ESSENTIALS

• Location: Marion, Ind. | Luckey Arena
• Records: IWU: 23-0, 13-0 | USF: 21-3, 11-3
• NAIA Top-25 Rankings: IWU - #2 | USF - 14

WHAT HAPPENED

• The Wildcats trailed 17-4 after the first quarter, shooting just 2-13 from the field and 0-8 from three.
• Maddie Lawrence gave IWU life in the second, scoring 10 points on 3-5 shooting and pulled the Wildcats to as close as 4 before a Cougar three at the buzzer pushed USF's lead to 31-24 at half.
• Indiana Wesleyan tied the game at 31 to start the third quarter. The IWU defense forced 6 turnovers, helping them win the quarter despite Saint Francis shooting over 55% in the frame.
• Trailing by just 4 entering the fourth quarter, the red and gray were unable to pull closer than 2 before the offense ran out of gas and the Cougars used a 7-2 run to close the game.

NOTABLE NUMBERS

• 27: IWU got 27 points from their bench while USF had just 1. 17 of the 27 came from Maddie Lawrence.
• 17: The Wildcats struggled from behind the arc, hitting threes at just a 17% clip.
• 4: USF used a balanced scoring attack with 4 Cougars in double-figures.

KEY WILDCATS

• Taylor Folkema: 22 points, 8-14 FG, 6 rebounds
• Maddie Lawrence: 17 points, 5-13 FG, 3 rebounds

LOOKING AHEAD

• IWU is back in Luckey on February 12th, facing Taylor at 5:00 PM
• Links for video and live stats will be available at IWUWildcats.com
• Tickets can be purchased at IWUWildcats.com

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