FORT WAYNE, Ind. - Grace College's women's basketball team had its stay in the Crossroads League Tournament ended in the quarterfinals on Tuesday night.

The Lancers (14-15), Who were making their second trip to Fort Wayne in seven days, fell to the fourth seeded St. Francis Cougars 75-67.

Grace will now turn its attention to a likely bid to the NCCAA National Tournament, which will be hosted at Grace's Manahan Orthopaedic Capital Center. The tournament will start on March 20th.

The Cougars (18-10) started the game a perfect 3-3 from the field to start the game with a 7-0 lead.

USF threatened to extend their lead even further but back-to-back steals for Grace sparked a Lancer run in response.

Sisters Kensie Ryman and Maddie Ryman rattled off seven unanswered points to bring Grace even. Peyton Murphy and Kaylee Patton then each had scores in the paint to cap off an 11-0 run and give the Lancers a four-point lead.

The Cougars responded with a pair of timely 3-points shots and had a last second layup to carry a 15-13 lead into the second stanza.

Houk tied the game on the first shot of the quarter then Kate Rulli converted at the charity stripe to give Grace a lead that was quickly relinquished back to the Cougars after a USF trifecta.

Grace shot 66 percent in the second quarter and Houk had nine points but it was only enough to match the Cougars 16 second-quarter points as USF continued to hit from beyond the arc at a blistering rate. At halftime Grace trailed 31-29.

The Lancers shot an impressive 55 percent in the first half and forced the Cougars into eight turnovers while committing just two. USF was able to take advantage of six 3-point shots on 13 attempts to fuel their halftime lead.

After a quick score for USF to start the second half, Patton hit a trifecta to cut the lead to one and Murphy had another score in the paint to push Grace ahead 34-33.

The Cougars came back with trifectas on four of their next five shots which kick started a 15-3 run. By the end of the quarter the Cougars had built the lead to 15 points and led 56-41.

The Lancers came out with urgency in the final frame scoring the first seven points of the frame to cut the deficit to eight points.

Once again the Cougars found success from deep, hitting 3-point shots on the next two possessions to extend the lead back to double digits.

The Lancers continued to fight back and trimmed the lead to as little as five points, but USF was able to ice the game from the free-throw line for the 75-67 victory.

"These girls left it all out there tonight," said Grace head coach Dan Davis. "We have had some slow starts in the third quarter this year and it happened again tonight. St. Francis obviously was hot from deep but we still had a shot to win the game. We will get some time off to rest up and then turn our attention towards the NCCAA tournament. Looking forward to three more weeks with this group."

Grace shot 44 percent from the field while USF hit on 55 percent of their tries plus 54 percent (13-24) from deep.

The Lancers were out rebounded 30-19 but committed just four turnovers compared to the Cougars' 17.

Freshman Morganne Houk had a breakout performance in her first taste of postseason action, pacing Grace with a career high 20 points. Murphy finished with 16 points and seven rebounds. Patton had 14 points.