JOLIET, Ill. – Lewis University's women's basketball picked up its second straight win holding off a crosstown rival St. Francis for a 68-61 victory on Tuesday evening at the Sullivan Center in Joliet, Ill. The Flyers improve to 3-6 while the Fighting Saints are 9-3.

Lewis opened the game on a 10-2 run and led by as many as 10 at 20-10 after a jumper by Kathryn Schmidt (Hampshire, Ill./Burlington Central) with 3:47 left in the opening stanza. St. Francis got back-to-back buckets Andrianna Acosta and Jordan Pyle to cut the Flyer lead to six but Stephanie Hart (Geneva, Ill./Geneva) countered with a three from the right corner to push the margin back to nine. Justene Charlesworth hit a three with 61 seconds remaining in the quarter to cut Lewis' lead to six at the end of the frame.

The Flyers went cold to start the second quarter and the Fighting Saints took advantage scoring the first 11 points of the stanza to take its largest lead of the game at 28-23 on a layup by Hannah Swiatek near the midpoint of the frame. Lewis got its offense going over the final 4:30 closing the half on a 13-0 run to take an eight-point lead into the locker room at halftime.

Schmidt led all scorers with 21 points in the first 20 minutes connecting on 7-of-11 shots from the floor including 2-for-3 from downtown and shot 83 percent at the foul line. Grace Hilber (Sun Prairie, Wis./Sun Prairie) added eight points on 4-of-9 shooting.

Acosta led USF with 10 points while Charlesworth and Pyle added six points apiece.

The Flyers stretched its lead to 10 early in the third quarter but the Saints scored the final eight points of the frame to cut Lewis' lead to 46-44 heading into the final stanza. The Flyers shot only 29 percent (4-for-14) from the field while the Fighting Saints connected on 39 percent (7-of-18) of its attempts from the field.

The two sides traded three's to begin the final 10 minutes and then neither team scored for two minutes until Amelia Motz (Canton, Ohio/St. Vincent-St. Mary) hit two free throws to give Lewis a four-point lead. St. Francis scored five of the next seven points to cut the Flyer lead to one with 4:06 left. Lewis got three big buckets to push its lead to nine as Motz hit a driving layup and Hilber buried back-to-back three's. The Saints got to within six but wouldn't get any closer as the Flyers hit 5-of-8 at the charity stripe to seal the victory.

Lewis shot 40.4 percent (23-for-57) from the field, was 7-of-22 from three and shot 79 percent at the foul line. Schmidt finished with a double-double scoring 26 points and grabbing 10 rebounds while Hilber added 21 and Motz and Lily Courier (LaGrange, Ill./Lyons Township) finished with eight points apiece.

USF was held to 38 percent (24-for-64) shooting in the contest and was 4-of-19 from three and shot 69 percent (9-for-13) at the foul line. Pyle led the Fighting Saints with 17 points while Acosta added 14 points and 18 rebounds.

The Flyers play their final game of the semester hosting Grand Valley State on Monday (Dec. 20) at 2 p.m. at Neil Carey Arena.