The Dominican University women's basketball team followed up Saturday's first win of the season with a loss at Marian University on Wednesday evening, falling to the host Sabres 82-60 to fall to 1-1 in Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) action.
 
"We learned a powerful lesson tonight," commented head coach Gabby Johnson following the loss. "You cannot get into a shootout with teams on their own floor.  We have to make defense a priority."
 
The Stars, paced by Allie Tapanes's (Winfield, Ill.) team-high 17 points, managed to shoot better than 34 percent from the field (20-for-58) and converted on 11 of 29 attempts from the three-point arc but allowed the Sabres to shoot better than 47 percent from the field and drop in 14 of 29 attempts from three-point range.
 
The Stars opened the game on a 9-5 run over the first four minutes but the Sabres answered with a 13-2 run of their own and led 18-11 at the end of the first quarter.

Both teams shot extremely well in the second period with Dominican connecting on seven of nine attempts from beyond the three-point line while Marian shot 9-for-14 from the field, including connecting on four three's of their own, to carry a 42-37 lead at the half.
 
After the break, the Marian offense remained red-hot, knocking down five three's in the third quarter while Dominican struggled to get going, shooting just 3-for-11 in the period with six turnovers as the Sabres opened a 63-49 lead and never looked back.
 
Tapanes finished with four three's, shooting 5-for-20 from the field, adding three rebounds and three assists while logging 40 minutes.  Jasmyn Hardin (Cincinnati, Ohio) and Angela Evola (Marseilles, Ill.) added ten points apiece with Hardin collecting a game-high 12 rebounds for her fourth double-double in five games.
 
For the Sabres, Nicole Paulus led the way with a game-high 23 points on 7-for-15 shooting from the field, going 7-for-10 from three.  Brandy Bender added 15 points while Hunter Godfrey came off the bench to score 12 points in 18 minutes.

"Now we have to regroup and get ready for Saturday's game against a top conference opponent," said Johnson.
 
The Stars, now 1-5 on the season, return home to River Forest and will host the Concordia University Wisconsin Falcons on Saturday afternoon for a 4:15 p.m. game in the Igini Sports Forum.