JOLIET, Ill. -- Using a strong second quarter to jump out to 15-point lead at halftime, the University of St. Francis women's basketball team began its 2025-26 campaign with a win on Friday night, defeating University of Michigan-Dearborn 80-58.  A .444 shooting mark from the field (28-of-63) and .360 percentage from behind the arc (9-of-25) boosted the Fighting Saints its first victory of the season.

In only their fourth-ever meeting, the two teams matched up evenly through the first five minutes of play with the score tied at 6-6 before Michigan-Dearborn (0-1) found itself ahead by one point with 3:48 remaining in the quarter.  Coryn Fromm, Mia Kennelly and Riley Cwinski, however, teamed up to score St. Francis' remaining seven points in the frame to take a 15-11 lead at the end of the first quarter. 

St. Francis (1-0) would widen the scoring gap to as high as 22 points in the second quarter after Fromm and Laurelei Thormeyer each connected from long range.  The two combined for 13 points to give the Saints a comfortable cushion of 11 points, 35-13.  Michigan-Dearborn countered by scraping together 12 points in the remaining five minutes of the period to mark the score at 43-25 heading into the locker room.

The Saints continued their offensive pressure at the start of the third quarter, adding onto their lead with a quick three-pointer from Thormeyer. Fromm would add another triple to her total a few minutes later to help the Saints widen their advantage to 23 points (51-28) before ballooning their lead to as high as 29 points with 6:04 remaining in the stanza.  The Wolverines did not go away, though, as they managed an 8-2 run over the next two and half minutes and later got within 20 points at 63-43, but a Tykara Harrison three-pointer at the start of the fourth quarter stopped Michigan-Dearborn's momentum and enabled the Saints to close out the game with a 80-58 final score.

Fromm led all players with 16 points as she went 6-for-12 from the field with three three-pointers, while Thormeyer and Harrison each chipped in 13 and 12 markers, respectively.  Rebounding was a team effort with four players pulling down seven boards apiece.

Up Next
St. Francis will take the court again on Oct. 28 when it travels to Indiana to take on University of Indiana Kokomo.  Game time is set for 5:30 pm.

You can keep up with everything happening around USF Athletics on X @USFSaints.