INDIANAPOLIS – A pair of mistakes in the final minute proved to be costly for the Greyhound women's basketball team on Thursday night as the Hounds opened a four-game homestand with a 68-60 loss to the William Jewell Cardinals.
 
Senior Nicole Anderson had a game-high 20 points and was joined in double-figures by Martha Burse (14 pts) and Jordan Cole (11 pts). But a slow start offensively put the Hounds behind the proverbial eight ball and mistakes down the stretch did in the Greyhounds (14-10, 8-6 GLVC) as William Jewell (10-11, 6-7 GLVC) extended the Hounds' losing streak to four.
 
"We turned the ball over way too much and it cost us," Head coach Kristin Drabyn told WICR after the game. "We gave it away 19 times and they got 23 points off of our mistakes. That many mistakes are going to be hard to overcome and that was the case tonight."
 
After falling behind early, the Greyhounds used a 9-2 first quarter run to take their first lead of the night after a Jordan Cole Layup made it 9-7 with 5:35 left in the first. But the UIndy offense stalled for the rest of the quarter, recording just one field goal while Jewell rattled off a 12-3 run to take a 19-12 lead after one.
 
William Jewell would extend the lead to as many as 10 early in the second quarter before the Greyhounds' offense came to life. UIndy closed out the final 7:43 of the half by going 5-for-8 from the field and 2-for-2 from the line, but still trailed at the break, 37-30, thanks to a William Jewell offense that went 13-for-24 from the floor in the opening half.
 
The Hounds wasted no time cutting into the lead when the second half began, starting the third quarter on a 9-4 to get within 41-39 with four minutes to go in the quarter. It was as close as UIndy would come to getting back to even, however, as the Cardinals would hold off the charging Hounds and take a 45-42 advantage into the fourth.
 
A layup from Anderson tied the game at 48 with 7:40 to play. Jewell answered with a brief surge, but UIndy got back to even thanks to a fast-break layup from Burse with 1:22 to go, evening things up at 56.
 
Maddie Nelson put the Cardinals back in front with a pair of free throws on the next trip down the floor and followed that up with a back-breaking steal-layup combination that made it a four-point game with 46 seconds to go. The Hounds next trip down the floor ended up being the dagger as another turnover allowed the Cardinals to put the game out of reach at the line.
 
UIndy connected on 42.6 percent (23-for-54) of their field goals, going 3-for-12 from deep and 11-for-14 from the line. At the other end, the Hounds held William Jewell to 42 percent (21-for-50) from the floor, 6-for-19 from three and 20-for-25 at the charity stripe.
 
Rebounds were 37-27 in favor of UIndy with Anderson and Tina Negoescu tying for the team lead with six boards each. Points in the paint were 32-22 in UIndy's favor. William Jewell held a 19-14 edge in the turnover battle and a 23-16 edge in points off turnovers.
 
The Hounds will look to snap their four-game slide on Saturday afternoon when they welcome the Rockhurst Hawks to Nicoson Hall for a critical GLVC showdown. Tip-off is set for 1:00 p.m.