The William Jewell women's basketball team fell for the first time this winter as they dropped a 68-53 contest to Sioux Falls on Saturday evening in South Dakota. The Cardinals are now 1-1 on the young season while USF moves to 3-0. 

Jewell opened slowly as starters Chris Keys and Kayla Harrell each picked up two fouls a piece less than four minutes into the game to put Jewell in immediate trouble against the Cougars' 6'2 forward Sam Knecht. Harrell hit a long three with the shot clock expiring at the 3:48 mark of the first quarter to tie the game at 11. A 5-0 run by USF gave them a 16-11 lead after one complete. 

In the second frame, Katie Finn hit a jumper to end a scoring drought for Jewell that lasted more than six minutes. After the Cougars went on a 9-5 run to pull ahead by a dozen, Annemarie Boeh hit a big three-point shot followed by lay ups from Nelson and Adriana Rodriguez to pull the Cardinals within five at 30-25. USF hit a three of their own just before the break to send Jewell into half time trailing 33-25. The Cardinals, who trailed by as many as 14, shot 39 percent from the floor in the opening half but allowed a 45 percent clip from the Cougars while committing 11 turnovers.

Following the break, Finn hit a three-point shot from the right wing before USF began expanding on their lead as they opened the second half with a 10-3 run to force a timeout from Jill Slominski. The Cougars pulled ahead by as many as 17 in the second half before a Keys three pointer brought the Cardinals back within 12 at 60-48 with just over five minutes to play. 

Neither team seemed to be able to find the bottom of the net during the final five minutes as they combined for just three field goals over the remainder of the game. The Cardinals managed four shots over the final 30 seconds including a three from Finn to bring the score to the final of 68-53. 

The senior Nelson posted her third career double-double with 16 points and a game-high 11 rebounds to go along with four assists and four steals. Harrell reached double-digits for the first time in her Jewell career with 11 points and seven boards. 

Jewell shot just 34 percent from the floor on the night while also struggling from the charity stripe, hitting just six of 12 attempts. The Cardinals were out-rebounded by just four at 38-34 but managed to pull down 13 offensive boards. 

The Cardinals are off until next weekend when they will travel to the Missouri Western Classic to take on Northwest Missouri State on Friday evening at 5:30 p.m. followed by a match up with the host Griffons on Saturday at 5:00 p.m.