#2 Lady Cougars advance to 2nd round

Courtesy: St. Francis Athletics

SIOUX CITY, Iowa -- Senior guard Kayla Drake buried 4 3-pointers and finished with 21 points to lead second-ranked University of Saint Francis to a 62-42 win over Reinhardt University (Ga.) on Wednesday morning in the first round of the NAIA Championship.

    Freshman Brooke Ridley added 11 points and four blocked shots, junior Skylarr Shurn scored nine points and Meghan Slusher added eight in the balanced USF offensive. USF won its seventh consecutive game and 16th game in the last 17 to run its record to 31-3. The win improved USF to 23-13 in 14 NAIA Championship appearances and snapped a two-game first-round losing streak. The Lady Cougars are 11-3 now in first-round games.

    USF took a 3-0 lead on Drake's 3-pointer and after a tie and two lead changes, the Lady Cougars took the lead from the Lady Eagles (19-15) and continued adding to that lead through most of the rest of the game.

    USF earned a 1 p.m. rematch on Friday against St. Xavier University (25-6). SXU handed USF its first loss of the season in Chicago, 78-61, in the championship game of the SXU Holiday Tournament on Dec. 29, 2012.

   "Oh yes, we remember (SXU) and we are looking forward to playing them again," Drake said. "We did some good things today, but we can play better than we did today."