Mon., Dec. 22, 2008

   INDIANAPOLIS -- Marie Kaufmann scored 21 points and Jessica Teubert added 19, but the rest of the University of Saint Francis just couldn't warm up shooting-wise and the Lady Cougars dropped a 70-59 decision at Marian College on Monday.
   The game had been re-scheduled from Dec. 6 when poor road conditions forced USF to turn back and set a new date.
   "Jess and Marie had good games, but nobody else could get anything to go in consistently," Gary Andrews said after USF dropped to 1-2 in Mid-Central College Conference play. "It's frustrating because we only had 11 turnovers. We just couldn't make a key basket when we got the lead or couldn't make a stop. To the Knights credit, they are one of the best teams they've had in a while."
   Marian is ranked No. 31 and improved to 13-0 with the win and 3-0 in MCC play.
   In a game that had nine ties and 10 lead changes, Stacia Shepherd gave USF a 38-36 lead with 19:00 to play in the second half. After Marian tied the game at 38, a Teubert jumper at 15:31 gave USF its last lead 40-38. Jessica Carr drilled a 3-pointer at 15:12 to give MC the lead for good. MC went on a 15-3 charge to pull out to a 53-43 lead with 11:20 to play, but the Lady Cougars retialiated with an 8-0 run to close the deficit to 53-51 with 7:38 to play on a pair of Kaufmann free throws.
   The Knights stretched the lead to 57-51 with 5:49 to play, but USF again rallied to withing two, 57-55 with 5:12 to play on a Teubert layup. USF only managed two more baskets in the time remaining, both Teubert baskets. The Knights used an 8-0 run to stretch the lead to 65-55 with 3:13 to play to establish control.
   "We needed better play off the bench and with Jamika (Banks) in foul trouble, we had our share of problems," Andrews said. "We had some decent looks, we just didn't knock them down."
   USF finished 2-for-17 shooting from 3-point range, 0-for-7 in the second half. After shooting 46 percent in the first half overall on 13 of 28, USF only hit 9-of-28 second-half shots. MC's bench outscored USF 19-3.
  Shepherd added 11 points for USF, but was 0-for-6 from 3-point range. Teubert hit 1-of-4 3-point attempts and Vini Dawson managed to hit 1-of-4 3-pointers.
   USF resumes play on Dec. 30 with a trip to Cedarville, Ohio, to test 18th-ranked Cedarville University at 5:30 p.m.