The IUS women’s basketball team fall to a record of 7-9 on the season after a 77-69 loss to Brescia on Saturday afternoon.

In fact, this game was the KIAC Game of the Week. Both sides of the stands were active in the game

A strong 26 point 16 rebound performance from senior forward Mary Dye, but it was not enough to overcome a 3 point barrage in the second half from the Bearcats. The other girl down low junior forward Jocelyn Mousty added 12 points and seven rebounds.

After scoring 25 points in her previous game vs. IU Kokomo, sophomore sophomore guard Annie Thomas was held to 11 points on 3-17 shooting. The Grenadiers struggled on the offensive side of the ball, only shooting 38% from the field for the game.

The three’s were falling for the Bearcats in the second half. Brescia shot 6-11 from deep (55%) and 18-37(49%) overall in that half. Brescia was lead by a 16 point 13 rebound performance from Julie Whitfill.

The Bearcat bench helped in the effort of getting the win, outscoring the IU Southeast bench by sixteen.

“In the second half our defense let us down, of course they had a lot of quick, smaller people we were having trouble guarding,” Head Coach Robin Farris said.

There were four ties and four lead changes just in the third quarter alone.

The game was back in forth most of the way, until Brescia was able to pull away late in the fourth quarter. Their three point shooting was too much for the Grenadiers to overcome. The Bearcats made 11 three pointers out of the 26 attempted in the game.

The Grenadiers broke a team goal in the loss, according to Farris.

“We allowed 49% shooting in the second half,” Farris said. “Our goal is to hold teams to about 38% shooting.

Turnovers were also an issue for the Grenadiers. They turned the ball over a total of 15 times as opposed to only 10 to Brescia.

Farris said that the one thing they have been good at all season was rebounding. The Grenadiers can take away from this matchup is they were able to out rebound the Lady Bearcats 44-43.

Farris said that their defense was the reason they have been struggling this season. Not getting their hands active and not seeing the passing lanes.

Dye reverted back to defense being the biggest issue for the Grenadiers.

“We can definitely improve on our defense, that’s where we are struggling right now,” says Dye. “If we take care of our defense our offense will do the job.”

With this loss IUS falls to 4-3 in the KIAC, which is still a good spot to be in as the season is on it’s way down.

Next up for the Grenadiers is a 5:30 game at Cincinnati Christian (CCU) on Tuesday, Jan. 19. The Grenadiers last played CCU at home over the break, as they won on a comeback effort.