St. Louis, Mo., Jan. 11, 2020 – The Washington University in St. Louis women's basketball team opened University Athletic Association (UAA) play with a 78-64 loss to No. 16-ranked University of Chicago Saturday in St. Louis.

Chicago won its ninth-straight game to improve to 10-2 and 1-0 in the UAA, while WashU dropped to 7-5 and 0-1 in the UAA. All five of WashU's losses this season have been to teams ranked in the D3hoops.com Top-25 Poll.

Senior Kristina Schmelter led the Bears with 14 points and seven rebounds as WashU shot 36.4 percent (24-66) from the field and was outrebounded 47-30.

Freshman Raevyn Ferguson chipped in with a career-best eight points off the bench, while sophomore Hayley Semple added a season-high seven points and three steals.

WashU started slow missing its first eight shots from the field and trailed 5-0. Back-to-back threes from freshman Karisa Grandison and Schmelter gave the Bears an 8-5 lead. Chicago led 16-15 after one quarter as the Bears forced nine turnovers.

A back-and-forth second quarter saw the Bears shoot 45.5 percent (5-11) from the field and connected on 8-of-12 free-throws. Semple had four points, two assists and two steals in the quarter.

Sophomore Samantha Weaver led WashU with eight points in the first as Chicago led 35-34. WashU shot 34.4 percent (11-32) from the field and forced 12 turnovers.

Chicago opened the third quarter on a 16-4 run to stretch its lead to 51-38. WashU trailed by 13 (61-48) entering the fourth quarter after the Maroons shot 71.4 percent (10-14) in the third.

Semple canned a three and Schmelter recorded a three-point play to get the lead down to eight (64-56) but that is close as WashU would get.

Miranda Burt led all scorers with 22 points, while Taylor Lake added 21 points, nine boards and four steals. Grace Hynes just missed a triple-double with 13 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds.

WashU plays its first conference road game at Case on Friday, Jan. 17, at 6 p.m. (ET). 

BEAR NOTEBOOK: WashU leads the all-time series with Chicago 51-18 … Head coach Randi Henderson is 7-12 against top-25 opponents in her career … WashU is 26-7 at home under Henderson, and had its four-game win streak snapped … Grandison had a career-high seven points in her second career start.