Loretto, Pa. – The Le Moyne College women's basketball team suffered its first Northeast Conference loss on Sunday at Saint Francis University by a score of 55-52.

Le Moyne went on a 7-0 run between the 2:39 and 0:52 marks of the fourth quarter to tie the game at 52-52, but the Dolphins missed their final two field goal attempts, and Saint Francis made three free throws in the final 20 seconds to come away with their second NEC victory at DeGol Arena.

SFU snapped a three-game skid with the win while ending Le Moyne's four game conference winning streak.

Fifth-year guard Lytoya Baker (Rochester, N.Y./Bishop Kearney), graduate guard Sydney Lusher (Oneida, N.Y./Oneida) and junior guard Emily Florvil (Brooklyn, N.Y./Nazareth) each scored in double figures for Le Moyne.

Baker recorded a game-high 14 points, her 15^th game in double figures this season, with four rebounds and a steal, while Lusher tallied 12 points, five rebounds, two blocks and a steal in 36 minutes played.

Florvil tied her season and career-high with 10 points on five made field goals with four rebounds and a steal.

Sophomore guard Kaia Goode (Rochester, N.Y./Bishop Kearney) registered a game-high five assists to go along with five points and a game-high three steals.

SFU sophomore guard Destini Ward scored a game-high 18 points, including two go-ahead free throws with 19 seconds remaining in the fourth.

Freshman guard Kendall Carruthers, who finished the game with 15 points, six rebounds, three assists and a steal, scored 12 first-half points for SFU which helped the Red Flash establish a 32-24 lead after 20 minutes of action.

Freshman forward Marina Artero also scored in double figures for SFU with 10 points and six rebounds in 25 minutes off the bench, while sophomore forward Julianna Gibson pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds.

The Red Flash recorded 40 rebounds during the win, including a season-best 30 defensive boards.

Le Moyne forced 20 turnovers on Sunday, marking the third time this season that they've forced an opponent into at least 20 turnovers, however the Dolphins shot just 21-63 (33.3%) from the field, including 4-15 (26.7%) from three-point range. from

Saint Francis went 19-45 (42.2%) the field, and 4-13 (30.8%) from three, but the Red Flash went 13-16 from the free-throw line, compared to 6-8 for the 'Phins.

Quotes from Le Moyne head coach Mary Grimes:
"Give credit to Saint Francis, they dominated the glass. But I think offensively we just didn't score the ball like we needed to. They got to the free-throw line 16 times, we took eight free throws. We were getting it inside but we didn't have an inside presence like we needed to. We're going to regroup, this was a tough stretch for us to play at home [on Friday] and then turn around and come down to Altoona (the day after). It's just a good gut check for us, and we need those during the season."

"We did what we needed to do defensively, I think we probably could have done a better job, there were some miscues that we had… We played multiple defenses today and to hold them to 55 points is great but we have to score the basketball."

"We pressed them and they turned it over, we just didn't convert. We got a lot of things out of our press."

The closing stretch:
The Dolphins trimmed their deficit to 44-38 after three quarters, and they made a three-point game with 6:09 left in the fourth after a nice drive and score from Florvil, but SFU got back-to-back baskets from Artero and Ward to make it 52-45 at the 4:46 mark.

Neither team scored during the next two minutes, then Le Moyne sophomore guard Sierra Linnin (Valley Cottage, N.Y./Albertus Magnus) knocked down a three pointer in transition to make it a four-point game.

Linnin grabbed a contested defensive rebound at the other end, then during the ensuing Le Moyne possession she caught the ball on the wing, crossed over to her left and converted a tough running layup near the left block to make it 52-50 in favor of the home team.

Saint Francis had the ball with under a minute remaining, but Goode poked the ball away from a driving Red Flash player, and Lusher picked up the loose ball.

Lusher quickly raced up the court, glided past two SFU players, threw a no-look bounce pass to her left for Goode who took a dribble towards the baseline and dropped off a pass to Florvil at the right block for a layup to tie the game at 52-52 and force an SFU timeout.

With 25 seconds remaining Ward drove toward the right block, drew a shooting foul and made both free throws to put the Red Flash back in front.

Le Moyne got a look from straight on at the other end, but the three-point attempt missed off the front rim.

The Dolphins intentionally fouled Carruthers and she made one free throw. The Dolphins missed their final shot as the clock expired.