CRESTVIEW HILLS, Ky. – A back and forth game didn't turn out the way the Campbellsville women's basketball team would have liked as they dropped their first game of the season to Thomas More University Monday night by a final of 65-55.
 
It was a tough night offensively for the Lady Tigers as they shot for their second worst percentage from the field on the season (37.5%) and made their fewest total free throws in a game this season (6).
 
The offensive struggles were emphasized in the first quarter when they were outscored 20-9 by Thomas More as the Saints were able to pull their lead to 13 points with the first basket of the second quarter as well.
 
Even at that margin, CU showed fight as they were able to only allow the Saints to score one more two-point basket for the rest of the quarter as TMU went scoreless for the final 7:05 of the second when the Lady Tigers would outscore them 12-0 to enter halftime up 26-24.
 
The third and fourth quarters were tough finishes for Campbellsville as they led 35-29 with 5:09 remaining in the third quarter and were outscored 11-1 to finish the quarter. In the fourth, the two teams traded blows to a 50-49 lead with five minutes left in the game before the Saints finished the game 16-5.
 
Sammy Rogers led all players in the game with 21 points, but she shot 9-of-21 (42.9%) from the field carrying the bulk of the scoring load. Savannah Gregory finished in double figures with 10 as she had seven points in the first half but was held scoreless for a majority of the second half until hitting a three with 28 seconds remaining.
 
Thomas More had three players in double figures as they got 11 from both Zoie Barth and Taylor Clos with Alexah Chrisman adding 10 off the bench. None of the the Saints that scored in the game scored less than four as their bench outsored the CU bench 27-10.
 
The Lady Tigers had an advantage on the glass in the first half as they outrebounded Thomas More 18-11 but the Saints grabbed 13 more rebounds than CU in the second half to finish the game with a 33-27 rebounding advantage.
 
Fouls played a part as well with Campbellsville being whistled for 18 fouls to just nine called on the Saints as TMU shot 20 free throws and hit 15 with CU going 6-of-10 from the charity stripe.
 
Campbellsville will return home for a Thursday matchup against No. 17 Lindsey Wilson College at the Powell Athletic Center at 5:30 p.m. ET.