JOLIET, Ill. --- For the first time in a stretch covering 82 games, the University of St. Francis women's basketball team is riding a two-game losing streak. Olivet Nazarene University delivered the second half of the blow to the Saints on Saturday night in a 77-73 Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC) decision at the Sullivan Center.
 

On Wednesday, Governors State upset No.13 ranked USF 51-49.
 

Both losses came at the Sullivan Center, which marked the first time since Dec. 6, 2014 that the Saints have suffered two straight defeats at home. In between the two spans, the Saints went 80-14 at home.
 

Olivet Nazarene (10-3, 6-2 CCAC) made up for a 79-44 setback to the Saints back on Dec. 30 by hitting clutch three-pointers all night long. Despite recording an overall lower shooting mark (.439-.466), the Tigers made up for it by connecting on 12-of-29 three-pointers (.414). St. Francis, on the other hand, was just 4-of-16 from three-point range (.250).
 

The majority of the nine lead changes and four ties came in the opening half before Olivet Nazarene would use a closing 8-0 run to gain a 37-33 advantage at the break. From there, St. Francis (17-4, 5-2) would lead again only one time (53-51 in the third quarter) on a Jordan Pyle (JR/Traralgon, Australia) three-pointer. 
 

Olivet Nazarene would go on to build the biggest lead of the night for either team (seven points) at the onset of the fourth quarter and the Saints could only get as close as two points on a pair of occasions in the closing ten minutes. Each time, Olivet Nazarene would counter with a long-range bomb to get the advantage back up to five points.
 

One of those came from Karina Smits, who led the Tigers with 15 points, all of which came on five treys in seven attempts. Olivet Nazarene also received big efforts from starter Kennedy Johnson (14 points/7 rebounds/5 assists/5 steals) and Caroline Boehne (13 points/8 rebounds) off the bench.
 

ONU's bench outscored USF's 34-5. The Tigers also won the rebounding war, 42-33, with 17 of those boards coming on the offensive end leading to a 19-11 scoring advantage on second-chance points.
 

Pyle paced the St. Francis attack. She fell one point short of tying her career high in points totaling 21 on the night to go along with eight rebounds, five assists, two blocks and two steals. Andriana Acosta (SR/Crest Hill, Ill.) who, along with Shadrian McDaniel (JR/Chicago, Ill.), was idled by early foul trouble in the opening half, still came away with 18 points and seven rebounds. Leah Sims added 10 points, seven assists and three steals.
 

After closing out the four-game homestand with a 2-2 mark, the Saints will look to get back on track Wednesday (Feb. 10) when they hit the road to face Holy Cross College in a league matchup starting at 4:30 pm CT.