Louisville City Wire

Women's basketball to welcome Franklin on Monday night

The Bellarmine University women's basketball team will host Franklin (Ind.) College at 6:30 p.m. (ET) Monday in Freedom Hall.

Franklin (4-3) is a member of Division III and the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference. Bellarmine (3-6) is 4-0 in the all-time series against the Grizzlies, but this will mark the first meeting since New Year's Eve of 1991. The teams first squared off in the 1980-81 season before playing three times in the early 1990s.

Franklin is coming off a key 57-45 home win over Manchester in HCAC play that moved the Grizzlies to 2-1 in conference action. Taylor Cooney sank all four of her 3-point attempts while scoring a career-high 18 points with eight rebounds and four assists. Georgia Hanauer was only one board shy of a double-double after registering 10 points and nine rebounds.

Cooney is Franklin's leading scorer at 10.1 points per game, and she's drained 57.9 percent (11-19) of her 3-point tries. CiCi Bailey is grabbing a team-best 6.1 rebounds per contest and averages 8.3 points for the Grizzlies, who are limiting opponents to 61.4 points per game.

Franklin represents Bellarmine's second opponent in a five-game homestand. The Knights are set for three games in six days this week in Freedom Hall, following the matchup with the Grizzlies with a much-anticipated Wednesday showdown with Louisville and a Saturday contest against Wofford.

Bellarmine began the extended homestretch with one of its best performances in the three-year Division-I era, as the Knights defeated Evansville 60-40 on Thursday while tying their largest margin of victory against an NCAA D1 team in the D1 era. The 40 points BU allowed were its fewest since joining the NCAA's highest level.

Bellarmine outrebounded Evansville 49-35, marking the seventh time in nine games the Knights either outrebounded or were even on the boards with their opponent. That amount already ties last season's total of accomplishing the feat.

Freshman center Gracie Merkle posted her fifth straight double-double and sixth of the season after tallying 15 points and 11 rebounds against Evansville. With two blocks, she bumped her D1-era single-season program record to 27. Heading into Monday, Merkle was the reigning ASUN Player and Freshman of the Week, the latter her third such honor of the season.

Sophomore guard Hayley Harrison scored a game-high 17 points against Evansville, her fifth double-digit performance of the season, while collecting a career-high eight rebounds. Senior forwards Sheniqua Coatney and Cam Browning combined for 15 boards against the Aces.

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Original source can be found here.