LATROBE, PA. (Nov. 26)- The Saint Vincent woman's basketball team got an impressive 104-60 win over Franciscan on Tuesday night.

It was wire to wire domination from the Bearcats (2-4, PAC 2-1) as they used strong offensive fundamentals and intense defense to build a lead against Franciscan (0-6, PAC 0-3) and never look back. Saint Vincent led the entirety of the game and after the first five minutes of the first quarter it was not close.

This effort gave the Bearcats their second win of the season and their 2nd win of President's Athletic Conference play.

Despite crossing the century mark for the first time this season, there are few high scoring outputs to speak of. The scoring was spread evenly throughout the roster, but the Bearcats still had four players in double figures. Led by junior Makenna Maier who filled the stat sheet with 15 points on 6-9 shooting from the field and 3-6 shooting from beyond the arc along with nine rebounds and five assists. Camdon Bashor added 11 points on 5-7 shooting with five rebounds. Kate Bollinger and Emily Thompson were the other standout scorers adding 13 and 10 points respectively.

At first offense was hard to come by, with the score being 9-7 Bearcats after five minutes. A mix of sloppy play and strong defense from both teams had this game looking like it was going to be a defensive battle, but the Bearcats had other plans.

Saint Vincent was able to rattle off a 21-5 run in the final 5 minutes of the first quarter. They slowed the game down in the halfcourt and did not let Franciscan's trap zone defense force them into bad passes.

The Bearcats used that run to fuel them and did not look back, winning the first quarter 30-12 and the 2nd 28-12. Their high defensive intensity prevented Franciscan from gaining any rhythm on offense in the 2nd quarter, highlighted by forward Camdon Bashor tallying two steals and three blocks in the opening half. On offense the 2nd quarter was much of the same. They kept the ball movement flowing to find easy buckets all over the floor.

In totality, the Bearcats put together a first half that was nothing short of dominate with the lead at halftime by the score of 58-24. Saint Vincent shot 55% from the field and a blistering 47% from deep in that half while limiting Franciscan to just 32% from the field and 17% from deep. The story of the first half was great passing and smothering defense. The Bearcats assisted on 19 of their 24 first half field goals and forced 12 Franciscan turnovers.

Saint Vincent used quick, smart passing and great off ball movement to find the holes in the Franciscan 2-3 zone. The ball never stuck in one hand too long and that enabled the Bearcats to take, and make, efficient shots. Bench guard Brooke Evans led the charge in this area finishing the first half with six assists to zero turnovers. On the other end they pressured the ball full court and had active hands in the passing lanes, leading to many transition opportunities in what was a fast paced opening half.

 The Bearcats kept up the intensity in the third quarter, allowing just 13 points. Franciscan dialed back the pressure they were putting on the ball which led to less open scoring opportunities, but the Bearcats were still able to find openings, scoring 22 points. Despite shooting just 39% from the field in the quarter Saint Vincent was able to grow its lead by ripping down seven offensive rebounds and continuing their spectacular passing, assisting on 7 of 9 field goals in the quarter.

The benches emptied a bit in the 4th leading to a sloppy but competitive final frame that saw the Bearcats increase the lead by one with a quarter score of 24-23. Saint Vincent was able to maintain solid offense shooting 47% of the field but lost the turnover and rebounding battles leading to the tightest ten minutes of the game.

The Bearcats shot 48% from the field and 39% from deep on their way to a season high 104 points in their massive win over Franciscan. Along with the efficient scoring the Bearcats got 12 more shots than the Barons thanks to a 60-44 advantage on the boards and winning the turnover differential by four. It was a dominant effort in all phases for the Bearcats as they pick up their 2nd win of the year and improve to 2-1 in conference play.

Saint Vincent will look to build on this win next Saturday, December 7^th as they host Geneva in a PAC matchup. Tip-off is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. in the Robert S. Carey center.