Grace College’s Haley Richardson (50) and Sarah Feasby battle for a rebound Wednesday night against St. Francis. (Photos by Mike Deak)

WINONA LAKE – When St. Francis needed to make a run Wednesday night, it did. Leading by just eight points heading into the fourth quarter, the Cougars scored 31 points in the fourth quarter to run away with a 82-58 Crossroads League women’s basketball win at Grace College.

It wasn’t one of those classic runs where a team can’t miss. St. Francis was just efficient in its shots, made its possessions count and kept Grace from getting the easy looks.

Grace guard Kelsey Sule looks for a teammate while St. Francis’ Zhanna Chukhrii defends.

Brooke Ridley, who had just seven points at the half, finished with 20 points to lead the Cougars. Ridley, who came into the night averaging 27 points per game, was in the middle of the late push, scoring a pair of bunnies on quick transitions on the other end of the court.

Quila Jackson had 16 points and Zhana Randolph scored all 10 of her points in the second half. Zhanna Chukhrii steadied St. Francis in the first half, scoring nine of her 12 points in the opening 20 minutes.

“They got a lot of easy baskets on penetration and we had a couple really bad turnovers. We look up and all of a sudden we’re down 14,” said Grace College head coach Scott Blum. “After that, it took away any of the wind in our sails. Then it snowballs to 20 and we’re in trouble.”

Grace had the trio of Darian Patton, Kelsie Peterson and Brooke Sugg all finish with 10 points while Haley Richardson and Jesse Feitz each scored eight points and combined for 15 rebounds.

The Lancers, however, shot just 25 percent in the first half and 31 percent for the game. Shooting behind the three-point line for Grace in the second half was frightful, making just 1-15 shots from behind the arc, and finishing 6-24 overall. Settling for low percentage shots as his team was falling behind to the No. 20-ranked Cougars was a point of emphasis for Blum in the lockerroom.

“I wish I had a solution to our poor shooting habits,” Blum said. “We don’t have a lot of balance on offense, and we fall into the same bad habits of settling for low percentage shots. We need more points in the paint. We get a lot of offensive rebounds and then feel like we need to kick it back out. Take the ball up and shoot the high percentage shot. That’s going to be the challenge to the girls.”

Grace (4-6, 0-2 Crossroads) will look to rebound Saturday in a trip to archrival Bethel for a 1 p.m. tip. St. Francis (4-2, 2-0) will visit Goshen College Saturday afternoon.

“I’m very confident that we have a very good basketball team that can beat anybody,” Blum said. “But I know we can also lose to anybody. This conference is very tough. Until they buckle down and do what we do in practice, these are the types of nights we’ll likely see.”