Taylor Drops its Final Game of the Regular Season against St. Francis

FORT WAYNE, Ind. – After establishing a 13-2 lead with under three minutes to play in the first quarter, the Taylor women's basketball team was outscored 61-43 throughout the remainder of the game, losing its final game of the regular season to St. Francis (17-8, 11-5) by a score of 63-56.

Senior, Kayla Kirtley, was lights out from the field to start the game, scoring 13 points in the first quarter, including 10 as a part of an early 13-0 Taylor run.

Kirtley shot 5-6 from the field and 3-3 from deep in the opening frame, yet the rest of the Trojan offense went just 1-11 from the floor. This tough stretch of shooting then continued into the second quarter, when St. Francis cut the Trojan lead to three points at half as Taylor shot just 5-18 from the floor.

The second half proved troublesome in its own right for the Trojans, this time mostly due to foul-trouble as three Trojan starters picked up two fouls a piece in the third quarter alone. The fourth quarter, then, ushered in a flurry of more fouls, sending the Cougars to the line 13 times in the game's final ten minutes.

At the end of the day, St. Francis capitalized on 18 trips to the free-throw line in comparison to just two made free-throws by Taylor. That imbalance in tandem with 18 second-chance points scored by the Cougars made it tough for the Trojans to maintain its early lead.

Kirtley finished the game with a game-high 18 points and seven rebounds, while Claycee West was the sole Trojan to join Kirtley in double-digits with 11 points of her own.

With today's loss, Taylor (14-12, 8-6) has secured the fourth seed in the Crossroads League Tournament, which signifies a home game for the Trojans against fifth-place Mount Vernon Nazarene (14-15, 8-9) in the tournament's quarterfinals game set to take place Tuesday evening, February 22nd, at 7:00 pm inside Odle Arena.