MORRISTOWN, N.J. – The Cairn University women's basketball team dropped their Colonial States Athletic Conference (CSAC) opener on the road at Saint Elizabeth University by a score of 80-56 on Wednesday evening.
 
Saint Elizabeth (1-5, 1-1 CSAC) jumped out to a quick 23-8 lead over Cairn (2-4, 0-1 CSAC) in the first quarter. The Highlanders responded by topping the Eagles in the second frame, and trailed 38-24 at intermission. The Highlanders got the deficit to 12 (46-34) with 4:38 left to play in the third, but the Eagles closed the stanza on a 14-5 run to put away the Highlanders.
 
Saint Elizabeth shot 43.7% (38-87) from the field in the contest compared to a 41.5% (14-41) mark for Cairn. The Eagles edged the Highlanders in the rebounding category (45-35) and posted 23 assists in the contest.
 
Cairn was led offensively by sophomore Tamia Warner (Ewing, NJ / Ewing), who tallied a career-high 24 points to pair with eight rebounds and three assists. Warner was followed by freshman Kaitlyn Barry (Brick, NJ / Brick Memorial) with a career-high 16 points and six boards, while classmate Dreyonna Graham (Morrisville, PA / Morrisville HS) rounded out three Highlanders in double figures with a career-high 10 points and five boards, and matched Warner with three assists.
 
The Highlanders will be back on the floor on Saturday, December 3 when they continue conference play on the road in Baltimore when they take on Notre Dame of Maryland University at 1 p.m.