Box Score TIFFIN, Ohio - The WJU women's basketball team had their offense clicking, but couldn't tame the Tiffin Dragons, dropping their first game of the season 85-78 on the road Friday night.
 
The Cardinals are now 1-1 heading into their first Mountain East Conference game against West Virginia State on November 23^rd.
 
"I thought we played a decent game, we just got out rebounded," said WJU head coach Deb Buff. "Our offense was decent, they were physical and just got a lot of second chance points."
 
Rebounds were the Achilles heel for the Cards, getting beat on the boards 39-53. 
 
The Cardinals did indeed have a productive night on offense, with Bre Butler leading the way for WJU with 16 points, going 7-14 on field goals.
 
Also posting good games for the Cards was Taneka Lewis who had 12 points, and Jaila Bryant and Kelsey Pacholke came off the bench to add 10 and 11 points respectively.
 
As a team WJU had a solid 35.5% field goal percentage, shot 25% from behind the 3-point arc, and hit 69% of their free throws.
 
The scoring was back and forth for most of the game, but things got physical, with over 70 foul shots taken in total on the evening, and the Cardinals couldn't keep the pace with three WJU players fouling out. The Dragons simply wound down the clock shooting free-throws.
 
Coach Buff didn't look as the physicality as a bad thing necessarily for her team, instead taking the view that it will battle-harden her squad for conference play. "Our non-conference schedule is tight, so games like this will get us ready for the year in terms of physicality," said coach Buff.
 
The Cardinals will open at home on November 25^th against the University of Charleston for a 5:30 tipoff.