HANCOCK — Playing four games in one week would wear on any team, especially one as young as the Finlandia Lions women’s basketball team, who fell Monday to a much quicker Dubuque Spartans, 90-54, at the Paavo Nurmi Center, dropping to 0-3 so far this season.

“It was our third game in four days,” said Lions coach Mariah LaPointe-Dunham. “I knew this game would kind of be a rat race. Unfortunately, we weren’t in the right places at the right time with some of our defensive (plays). Dubuque has a lot of fast players, so they were blowing past us (when) our legs were shot.”

The Lions stayed tight with their visitors, trailing early on 18-10, but the Spartans held the Lions to just three points in the second quarter. Dubuque increased their lead during that stretch and never looked back.

Timing, scoring accuracy and longevity caused the Lions to fall short. LaPointe-Dunham wants to take her team back to basics before they face Wooster and Carnegie Mellon in Wooster, Ohio, this weekend.

“We’re going to go back to (the) fundamentals,” said LaPointe-Dunham. “Almost back to junior high basketball (and) just work on complete fundamentals of the game.”

The Spartans were able to keep their side of the scoreboard moving by gaining momentum late in the second quarter and finishing with 25 points.

“I think the tempo of the game was in our favor,” said Spartans coach Mark Noll. “We made the tempo a really fast game (and) we used all 18 of our players.”

Dubuque has a large freshman class, much like Finlanda, but the Spartans faster-tempoed gameplay allowed them to control much of the contest. The matchup was the Spartans’ second of five away games. They want to use the win to carry them through their extended road trip.

“They have a young team, we have a young team,” said Noll. “We’re a high-tempo type (of) team. We want to press and we were successful with the press today.

“We play a very tough schedule (moving forward), so we’re hoping to use this momentum as a positive thing.”

Scoring

Dubuque 18 25 30 17 – 90

Finlandia 10 13 21 10 – 54

Totals

DU: Hazuga 23, Dwight 11, Zurcher 9, Kelley 8, Roach 6, Maahs 6, Smith 4, Sims 4, Davis 4, Thomas 4, House 4, Vicenteno 3, Daniels 2, Vaultonburg 2; Fouls: 24; Fouled out: none; 3-point field goals: Hazunga 7, Zurcher 1, Roach 1, Vicenteno 1

FU: Lundeen 12, Berg 11, Nagy 8, Makela 7, Pertile 6, Faccio 3, Ritchie 3, Loman 2, Taylor 2; Fouls: 23; Fouled out: Nagy, Loman; 3-point field goals: Berg 2, Nagy 2, Pertile 2, Ritchie 1