It's just the first week of December, but Xavier Coach Tom Lilly  already has a raspy voice from yelling instructions at his team.

Lilly's vocal chords got a real workout Friday night as the Saints  fell to seventh-ranked Iowa City West, 44-35, in a ragged Mississippi Valley Conference game at Ron Thillen Gymnasium.

"Move! Move!," barked Lilly at one point. "Screen! Screen!"

Sometimes his instructions worked and sometimes they didn't as the  Saints committed a string of costly turnovers. The Trojans also committed their fair share of mistakes, but the visitors had 6-foot-1  junior Logan Cook and she was the best player on the floor.

Cook finished with a game-high 16 points and was the only player on  either team to score in double figures.

Lilly tried his best to steer his club to an upset with directions to  "Post up! Diagonal! Get out there!"

Kiana Stanek tied the game for Xavier at 21-21 by popping in a  3-pointer with with seven minutes left in the third quarter and Kylie Brown pulled the Saints within 24-23 with a layup shortly after.

Things got a little out of control after that as Iowa City West (3-0,  2-0) scored 13 straight points to grab a commanding 37-23 lead early in the fourth quarter as the Saints (2-2, 1-1) hit a scoring drought.

Xavier climbed back within seven points at 37-30 on another 3-pointer  by Stanek, a bucket by Amelia Ivester and a drive by Lexie Noonan with  5:10 left, but that's as close as they got.

Stanek finished with three 3-pointers for nine points. Noonan scored  seven points, Caitlynn Daniels six points and Ivester six points.

IOWA CITY WEST (44): Morgan 2 0-0 4, Zacharias 1 0-0 3, Tauchen 0 1-2  1, Saunders 2 3-4 7, Huinker 2 2-4 6, Cook 6 4-5 16, Koch 3 1-2 7.  Totals 16 11-17 44.

XAVIER (35): Stanek 3 0-0 9, Hoffman 0 0-0 0, Daniels 1 4-4 6, Brown 2  0-2 4, Noonan 3 1-1 7, Steffen 0 0-0 0, Ivester 3 0-0 6, Jasper 1 1-5  3. Totals 13 6-12 35.

Halftime - Iowa City West 21, Xavier 16. 3-point goals - Iowa City  West 1 (Zacharias 1), Xavier 3 (Stanek 3).