Lady Tiger Basketball Coach Ginger Colvin said she was going to have to rent a little different type of movie to play on the team bus - something with a bit more of an edge. Big Momma's House 2 and a handful of chick flicks, just hadn't been getting her team in a fighting frame of mind.

The Lady Tigers looked like a team fresh off a viewing of Full Metal Jacket or The Texas Chainsaw Masacre after dispatching St. Francis 82-73 in Joliet, Ill. to keep their season perfect at 3-0.

"This was a good team we beat tonight," Colvin said by phone just outside her team's locker room. "This is the best we've played so far."



Trailing by 10 in the first half, CU had to fight back to gain a 44-39 lead at the intermission. Wendi Messer, who hadn't shown much offense in the first two road games, was huge, according to her coach.

Messer canned four threes on 50 percent shooting from beyond the arc and led the team with 17 points. She was joined in double figures by Mackenzie Lee 13, Melly Heaton 11, Whitney Ballinger 10 and Courtney Danis 13.

"Take away the first 10 minutes of the game, we played old-time Lady Tiger basketball," said Colvin.

"We really had to fight and I think I finally saw some spark."

The Lady Tigers had 13 threes as a team. In addition to Messer's four, Heaton had three, Megan Isaacs two, and one each from Danis, T.J. Thomas and Lee.

Ballinger was again saddled with foul trouble and played only 26 minutes, but still managed a double-double with 10 rebounds added to her 10 points. Isaacs, Kristi Ensminger, Thomas and Keisha Compton completed the CU scoring with 8, 6, 3 and 2 points, respectively.

This has been hard ... getting home from South Carolina early Tuesday and then making this Chicago swing," said Colvin. "But I think it will toughen us in the long run. We played 10 players, and they all contributed. I think we wore them down a little at the end."

Campbellsville stays on the road with a couple more games, this time in the Roy N. Baker Classic in McKenzie, Tenn. They play Harris-Stowe at 2:00 Friday and Bethel College at 5:00 on Saturday.