ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – Lewis University's women's basketball team wrapped up its home slate with an 85-74 win over McKendree on Monday evening at Neil Carey Arena. The Flyers improve 13-12, 11-6 GLVC while the Bearcats fall to 3-20, 2-14 GLVC.

McKendree came out of the gates strong taking a 10-6 lead nearly midway through the opening quarter. Lewis went on a 10-2 run over the next 2:13 to take a lead it wouldn't relinquish on a three-pointer from Kathryn Schmidt (Hampshire, Ill./Burlington Central).

The Bearcats would cut the lead to two but the Flyers closed the quarter scoring five of the final six points to take a 23-17 lead into the second stanza.

Lewis opened the second quarter with the first six points but McKendree came right back scoring five straight to close the gap to 29-24 after a layup from Sydney Diekhoff. That would be the closest that it got for the rest of the half as the Flyers outscored them 19-10 over the final 6:20 of the first half to take a 48-34 lead into the locker room at the break.

The Bearcats scored the first five points of the third quarter to cut Lewis' lead to nine 1:12 into the half. The Flyers answered with seven straight to build its largest lead of the night at 57-39 after a layup by Tara Gugliuzza (New Lenox, Ill./Lincoln-Way West) with 5:17 to go in the quarter.

McKendree cut the lead to 11 by the end of the frame as it outscored Lewis 14-7 over the final five minutes of the stanza.

The Bearcats kept chipping away at the lead in the fourth quarter getting to within six with 4:20 remaining. Gugliuzza hit a big three on the ensuing possession to extend the Flyer lead back to nine and McKendree wouldn't get closer than eight points the rest of the contest as Lewis scored eight of the final 14 points to secure the victory.

The Flyers shot 44 percent (29-for-66) from the floor in the contest including 9-of-29 from three and they shot 75 percent at the foul line. Schmidt led five Lewis players in double figures with 16 points while Grace Hilber (Sun Prairie, Wis./Sun Prairie) added 15, Lauren Ramsey (Oak Lawn, Ill./Mother McAuley) and Ryann Ogarek (New Lenox, Ill./Providence Catholic) had 11 and 10 points off the bench respectively and Lily Courier (LaGrange, Ill./Lyons Township) chipped in with 10.

The Bearcats shot 53 percent (24-for-45) from the field including 9-of-19 from three and shot 85 percent at the charity stripe. Madison Jones led the Cats with 14 points off the bench while Diekhoff and Erin Golden had 12 points apiece and Christy Fortune finished with 10.

The Flyers are back in action this Thursday (Feb. 24) as they travel to St. Louis to take on Maryville at 5:15 p.m.