HAMBURG, N.Y. – A slow first quarter offensively hurt the Hilbert women's basketball team who dropped a 49-40 AMCC contest to Franciscan this afternoon.  Both Shannon Rogers and Emily Speidel tossed in 11 points the led the sluggish offense as the Hawks fall to 9-11 overall.

Franciscan took an 11-5 first quarter lead and even though they were outscored by two-points in the second quarter by the royal and white, the Barons rode a 22-18 advantage to half time.

Jennifer Colvin opened the game with a short jumper to give Hilbert a lift as they were playing one-person down in their guard rotation this afternoon.

Speidel led the Hawks with eight points hitting back-to-back threes cutting the score to 20-18 with just over three minutes remaining in the period.  The Barons sank a lay-up before intermission for the 22-18 advantage.

The closest the Hawks got in the second half was, again, thanks to Speidel who hit her third long-ball at 8:06 for a one point deficit (24-23).  Hilbert struggled to find their scoring rhythm the rest of the quarter and found themselves down by ten to start for final quarter.

When they trailed 46-33 (5:44), the Hawks took at 7-0 run and scared Franciscan.  Katelyn Proy, Samantha Heiler (3-pointer) and Rogers each found the bottom of the net in that span which ended at 1:29 (46-40).  The Hawks began fouling to stop the clock. A pair of late-game turnovers and missed shots by Hilbert contributed to the nine-point loss.

Rogers posted her 17th double-double of the season when she got her own offensive rebound and laid the ball in for the Hawks' final basket of the game.  She finished with 10 rebounds and 11 points.  Heiler was credited with five assists as the Hawks converted only 28 percent of their shots from the floor.

After the loss, Hilbert dropped to seventh place in the AMCC standings as Franciscan moved to sixth.  The Hawks have a pair of road games this week against the top two teams in the league.  Bradford (10-2) on Wed, Feb 3 and La Roche (12-1) on Feb 6.