Nov. 15, 2003

ROMEOVILLE, Ill. - The only thing that kept freshman Mary Moskal (Cherry Valley, Ill./Rockford Boylan)'s collegiate debut from being perfect was the 67-62 loss Lewis suffered to Ferris State.

Moskal, who was 11-of-11 from the field for 24 points, was dazzling despite the loss. The 5-9 guard didn't take a shot outside of six feet, but didn't need to as she continuously found ways to get to the basket.

"Mary just keeps the game so simple," said Lewis head coach Lynn Plett. "She takes what's given to her and tonight she kept getting layups."

With three freshmen in the starting lineup, the Flyers (0-1) jumped out to a 10-2 lead in the first 3:50 of the game.

"I thought we played pretty well during that opening stretch," said Plett. "We fell into a lull after that though and we just went turnover after turnover for a stretch."

Ferris State (1-0) forced the Flyers into 15 first-half turnovers as the Bulldogs went on a 19-0 run that turned Lewis' eight-point lead into a 13-point deficit.

Trailing 33-20 with four minutes left in the first half, Lewis was able reverse the trend by holding the Bulldogs scoreless for the rest of the half and for the first three minutes of the second half. In that time, Lewis cut the score to 33-32 and eventually took the lead at 37-35. Ferris State's Kristin Reinholt broke a 40-all tie with a 3-pointer at 11:34 in the second half and the Bulldogs would never trail again.

Lewis had two possessions to take the lead late in the second half, but couldn't convert on either trip.

"When we made our run to tie it we were executing like we're able to," said Plett. "But once again we fell into the turnover trap and fell behind by 10 before we made a push."

Removing Moskal from the Flyers' boxscore left the team shooting 27.3 percent (12 of 44) from the field. Collectively, the team turned the ball over 27 times as well.

"We missed a lot of layups tonight," said Plett. "When you combine missed layups and turnovers that's a brutal combination."

Junior Cassie Stark (Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) (eight points, seven rebounds), freshman Darcee Schmidt (Machesney Park, Ill./Harlem) (11 points, three blocks) and senior Bryanne Callahan (Seneca, Ill./Seneca) (six points, 10 rebounds) contributed for Lewis.

11/14/03