Rio Grande --- The University of Rio Grande RedStorm women's basketball team, who received eight votes in the most recent NAIA Division I Top 25 poll, missed out on a chance to make a huge statement on Thursday night versus NAIA No. 3 Campbellsville. Campbellsville pulled away in the second half to defeat the RedStorm, 84-68 at the Newt Oliver Arena.

The game had a lot of ebb and flow in the first half. Rio Grande (8-3, 1-1 MSC) grabbed the early lead at 9-4 and pushed it to as high as eight points at 20-12. Campbellsville (8-2, 3-0 MSC) then went on a 17-2 run to take a 29-22 lead only to see Rio Grande fight back to take a 32-31 lead after a 10-2 run.

The RedStorm would lead 35-33 at the half.

Campbellsville went on a 14-3 run to begin the second half to gain control of the game. The Tigers would get the lead as high as 20 points in the second half (82-62). 

Senior guard Jenna Smith (Bellefontaine, OH) led the RedStorm with 22 points. Junior guard Kaylee Helton (Lucasville, OH) added 15 points while senior guard Bre Davis (Marietta, OH) tossed in 12 points and senior forward Leah Kendro (Strongsville, OH) chipped in with 10 points. Davis started strong, but was hit with early foul trouble as she scored eight of her 12 points in the first half.

Senior center Ashley Saunders (Amanda, OH) pulled down five rebounds to lead Rio Grande.

Campbellsville was able to counter with a balanced attack led Whitney Ballinger with 20 points, 13 rebounds, four assists and three blocked shots. Courtney Danis and Courtney Clifton each scored 17 points. Clifton pulled down eight rebounds and nailed three key trifectas that helped the Tigers put the game away. Melly Heaton also scored in double figures with 15 points.

Rio Grande head coach David Smalley was disappointed with the loss, but thought his team played well. "We're disappointed with the loss, but I thought our kids played extremely well in the first half," he said. "We stuck to the game plan, we did what we needed to do; I thought we did a nice job on Ballinger, we rotated, we did the little things."

"I thought Bre Davis was on track for having a career game and we get those three little fouls on Bre, which kind of put us back on our heels," Smalley added. "But then I thought we did a nice job without Bre in there."

"We played well, I thought Ashley Saunders' defense on Ballinger was phenomenal and it was a good team effort as far as we wanted to front her and double her and make her give it up and I thought we did a nice job," Smalley said. 

Smalley thought his team was plagued by fatigue in the second half. "We just ran out of gas. The bulk of our players just got tired and our bench just didn't produce like our bench needed to produce. That was a big difference in the game," Smalley said.

Rio Grande will face St. Catharine on Saturday at home. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. 

Stretch Internet and iHigh.com will have a simulcast of the game.