JOLIET, Ill. – The Olivet Nazarene University women's basketball team pulled off the 86-72 upset over the No. 19 Saint Francis Fighting Saints on the road Wednesday night. Tigerball shot a season-best 48.4% from three and 93.8% from the free throw line with 15 made three-point buckets and 15 of 16 free throws. It is ONU's first win over a ranked opponent since the Tigers dropped No. 16 Saint Xavier on Dec. 7, 2021.

Olivia Demosthenes led the way for Olivet early with six points in the first quarter. The Tigers converted four threes from four different players. Maddison Smith's three-point basket sparked a 7-0 run midway through the opening period. Khendel Rolison and Kaitlyn Engle converted triples in route to an 8-0 run to close the quarter leading 21-14.

The Tigers' bench contributed 11 of the 15 ONU points in the second quarter. Olivia Dirkse, Anne Peters, and Rolison made big buckets from three-point land to maintain the lead despite the Saints outscoring ONU 19-15 and shooting 57.1% from the floor. Jamie Finn assisted Caroline Boehne for a layup with only four seconds left in the half to lift the Purple and Yellow Gold to a 36-33 lead heading into the locker room.

ONU continued their third-quarter dominance in games this season with a 28-13 advantage over SFU. Boehne poured in nine points shooting 4-5 from the floor including a made three. Rolison tacked on six more points while Demosthenes added an additional five. They shot a game-best 57.9% from the field in the 10-minute stretch while holding the opponents to 33.3%. Olivet ended the quarter leading 64-46, their largest lead of the night.

The conference-leading Saint made the run at a comeback cutting the deficit to as low as 9 with 4:32 left in the game. Maggie Cora provided answers to SFU's run with two three-point buckets in a 36-second span and 2:10 on the game clock.  Demosthenes and Boehne made six straight free throws from the charity stripe in the final moments to secure the 86-72 win.  

QUICK HITS

• ONU turned over SFU 19 times.
• Rolison ended with 14 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 steals. She shot 5-7 from the floor, 2-2 from three, and 2-2 from the line.
• Olivet benefited from 34 points off the bench to Saint Francis' 0.

WHAT'S NEXT
Tigerball will return to McHie Arena this Saturday as they host Trinity International. Tip-off is scheduled for 1 p.m. CST as ONU looks to claim their 10^th win of the year. Please visit ONUTigers.com to follow all the basketball coverage.

--ONU—

*Contact: Patrick Kaindl, Sports Information Graduate Assistant, pkaindl@olivet.edu