ROMEOVILLE, Ill.—The University of Southern Indiana women's basketball was unable to overcome a tough first half as it fell to Lewis University 85-70 Thursday evening at the Neil Carey Arena.

USI (4-2, 1-2 GLVC) was charged with 18 first-half fouls and sent the Flyers to the free-throw line 29 times as it went into the locker room trailing 50-32 at the break. The Flyers scored 19 points off 11 USI turnovers in the first half and converted on 19 of their 29 free throw attempts to build the 18-point halftime lead.

The Screaming Eagles, who trailed by as many as 20 four different times in the second half, cut the Lewis lead to seven with 4:15 to play. USI used a 28-15 run—the run included a combined 16 points from senior forward/center Andrea Engleking (Charlottesville, Indiana) and senior guard Jamie Truitt (Owensboro, Kentucky)—that lasted more than 10 minutes of the second half to get back into contention.

Engleking scored nine points during the run and had 11 of her team-leading 17 points in the second half, while Truitt scored all seven of her 13 points during that span.

Junior forward Ashley Green (Otterbein, Indiana) also had a big part of the run as she connected on two of her career-high four three-pointers during the 10-minute run. She finished the game with a season-high 14 points and was a perfect 4-of-4 from behind the arc.

Fellow classmate Sabrina Brandon (Danville, Illinois) added 10 points, eight of which came in the second half.

The Flyers (3-3, 2-1 GLVC), however, held off the Eagles' spurt as they closed the game with a 12-4 run. Lewis was led by a trio of players to finish with at least 20 points.

Sophomore forwards Mary Moskal and Darcee Schmidt each finished with a game-high 25 points, while junior guard Shante Glenn added 20 points. Moskal grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds and was 15-of-22 from the charity stripe.

For the game, the Flyers visited the line 42 times, connecting on 29 of those attempts, while the Eagles were 20-of-25 from the charity stripe.

USI will visit Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (2-3, 1-1 GLVC) Saturday for a 1 p.m. tip-off at the Vadalabene Center in Edwardsville, Illinois. SIUE defeated the University of Missouri-St. Louis 56-53 Thursday evening.