NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The UIndy women's basketball team unofficially began the 2018-19 season Sunday afternoon, taking on Division I Vanderbilt University. The Greyhounds fell 90-60 to the SEC opponent, with three Hounds finishing in double figures.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Hounds kept it close in the first half before Vandy built a cushion with a big third quarter. UIndy hung 20 points on the board in the second quarter and trailed by just five at intermission before the host Commodores pulled away.
 
UIndy found itself within a single possession for much of the second quarter, getting timely triples from Laura Thomas, Katie Sowa and Taylor Drury to keep it close. Thomas nailed her third 3-pointer of the quarter to make it 36-35 Vandy late in half, but the Commodores scored the final four points of the half before going on to outscore the Greyhounds by 13 points in the third quarter and 12 in the fourth.
 
UIndy did not have an answer for the 6-foot-5 Mariella Fasoula. A member of the Lisa Leslie Award Watch List, the Boston College transfer finished with a game-high 26 points on 11-for12 shooting and 11 rebounds.
 
A GLVC All-Freshman Team honoree a year ago, Drury started her sophomore season with a team-high 17 points while adding three boards and a block. The Pekin, Ind., native shot 50 percent from the field while knocking down five 3-pointers.
 
Playing their first game as Greyhounds, Thomas and Sowa each reached double figures in scoring. Thomas, a transfer from DI Northern Kentucky, scored 14 points and dished out four assists, while freshman Sowa chipped in 10 points off the bench.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- UIndy shot 12 for 23 (.522) from behind the arc, matching last year's game high for 3-pointers made.
- The Hounds were whistled for 24 personal fouls, compared to just 11 for Vandy. Emily Benoit and Drury were each saddled with four fouls, while Sowa garnered the maximum five.
- The Commodores shot 80 percent from the field in the decisive third quarter.
 
HOUND BYTES
Head Coach Kristin Wodrich on the difference in the third quarter …
"I think in the third quarter they exposed some of our weaknesses. They've got a big kid in the post in Fasoula, and she's pretty good over that left and that right shoulder. They isolated her on the block and she did a really nice good.
 
They started to go inside a little bit and we struggled with foul trouble with our post kids, but that's kind of where the wheels started to come off in that third quarter."
 
Wodrich on lessons learned going forward …
"The biggest thing is that we've got to take care of the basketball. We had a lot of offensive fouls; we need to wait more on our screens; so there are a lot of things going through my mind right now on what we can do better. But I thought we shot the ball extremely well tonight, so if we clean up a few of those things moving forward, I think we'll be in good shape as long as we keep focusing on getting better every day.
 
"But being our first exhibition game on the road against an SEC school, I'm really proud of our kids and the fight that they had. They loved it, they enjoyed it, and I'm just excited to get back to practice on Tuesday."
 
UP NEXT
The Greyhounds have one more DI exhibition before the 2018-19 season officially kicks off. UIndy heads the Dayton University Thursday, Nov. 1 for a 7 p.m. ET tip.