Belles Fall to Thunder in MIAA Opener

Box Score

ANGOLA, Ind. - The Saint Mary's basketball team had a difficult time getting buckets to drop as they suffered a 67-59 defeat at the hands of in-state rival Trine on Wednesday evening.

The Belles did not hit their first shot from the floor until the 8:34 mark in the first half. Annie Doyle drained a three-pointer with less than nine minutes remaining before the half to cut Trine's lead to eight points. The Thunder, however, continued to take advantage of the tough-shooting fortune of Saint Mary's as they took their biggest lead of the game with an 11-2 run for a 17-point cushion with less than five minutes to go before halftime. By the time the buzzer sounded for the break, the Belles had shot just 23 percent from the floor and trailed Trine 33-19 as the Thunder hit better than 50 percent of their shots.

Saint Mary's did not go down easily as they scored seven consecutive points to halve Trine's lead just 1:32 into the period. Each time Trine went up again by double-digits, the Belles battled their way back to make it a close contest. Jessica Centa had a pair of layups late in the half to get Saint Mary's within five points of the Thunder with just 2:25 remaining. Trine, however, had a three-point play on their ensuing possession and the tough shooting from the floor continued as the Belles missed four consecutive shots to halt the comeback effort.

The Belles out-shot the Thunder by a 65-43 margin in the contest and had 10-fewer turnovers than Trine. The difference was that Trine made nearly 56 percent of their shots of the floor (24-43) while the Saint Mary's made just under 31 percent (20-65).

Patsy Mahoney and Shanlynn Bias led the Belles with 10 points apiece.

The Belles (2-5, 0-1 MIAA) will look to bounce back when they host Alma on Saturday for a 3:00 p.m. MIAA contest against the Scots.

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