JOLIET, Ill. -- A double-double from Tykara Harrison and a 22-point effort by Abby Shepard pushed the No. 3-seeded University of St. Francis women's basketball team to a 92-66 victory over No. 6 seed Indiana University South Bend in opening-round action of the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament on Wednesday night at the Sullivan Center.

The tense affair featured aggressive efforts from both sides, but matching 53.1 percent shooting marks from the field (34-of-64) and beyond the arc (17-of-32) gave the Saints the momentum they needed to pull away for the 26-point victory.

Harrison and Shepard came up with two of their biggest efforts of the season on the night with the former posting her first double-double of the season with 25 points and 10 assists.  Shepard, meanwhile, notched her second-highest point total as a Saint, sinking six treys in 27 minutes of action en route to her 22-point night.

Laurelei Thormeyer was just one assist shy of her first career double-double, as well, dishing out nine assists, while contributing 13 points.

Amou Ring, Symone Harrell and Le'lani Harris held down the defensive front, pulling down 23 boards between the three, while combining to limit IUSB's top two scorers to eight points below each of their season averages.  Harrell also recorded five steals in the contest.

Indiana South Bend (19-9) held a one-point lead (18-17) after the first period of play, but St. Francis (23-6) would outscore the Titans 19-9 in the second frame to take a 36-27 advantage into the halftime break and never looked back.  With the exception of a slight 23-second span of time in the third quarter, the Saints led by 10-or-more points over the final two periods.

IUSB pulled to within 12 points twice in the third quarter, the last time with 3:54 remaining in the frame, but would get no closer as the Saints shot 58.3 percent (21-for-36) with 10 three-pointers in the second half.  For the game, IUSB hit on 37.7 percent of its shots from the field (23-of-61), including 10-of-32 (31.3 pct.) from three-point range.

Indiana South Bend's Jazmen Watts authored game-high scoring honors, finishing with 20 points and six boards.

Up Next
The win puts the Saints in a semifinal-round matchup with No. 2-seeded Olivet Nazarene University on Friday (Feb. 28).  Tip-off will commence at 5:30 pm at McHie Arena in Bourbonnais, Ill.

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