University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Women's Basketball Suffers Setback to Denver
12/30/2001 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dec. 30, 2001
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL SUFFERS SETBACK TO DENVER
Pioneers overcome first-half shooting woes to hand Cajuns their second-straight loss
LAFAYETTE – When the University of Denver's women's basketball team plays in Earl K. Long Gym one thing is for sure: the rims in the gym will be ice-cold.
That's exactly what took place Sunday at Earl K. Long Gym between Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns women's basketball team and Denver. Fortunately, Denver was able to overcome their shooting woes to pull off the 54-41 win.
Head coaches Pam Tanner and Gay Nix probably felt a sense of déjà vu. Last season, when their teams met at Long Gym the two teams combined to shoot 35-for-106 (33 percent). Sunday, the teams nearly duplicated that performance, combining to go 37-for-110 from the field (34 percent).
The Cajuns (4-8, 0-2 Sun Belt Conference) suffered their second-straight home loss, while the Pioneers upped their win streak to two and improved to 6-8 overall and 2-0 in SBC play. The Pioneers extended their SBC-winning streak, dating back to last season, to 16 games. The Cajuns, on the other hand, had their SBC-losing streak extended to six games, dating back to last season.
Denver made the second-half adjustments they needed to turn a 23-21 halftime deficit into a victory. The Pioneers started off the half on a 15-2 run that pushed the lead to double-digits for the first time in the game at 36-25 with 14:25 to play.
Louisiana-Lafayette would trim the lead to seven with 7:22 left on the clock thanks to back-to-back jumpers by Charlotte Green and Sarah Richey. That capped off a 6-0 Cajuns' run and cut the Denver lead to 40-33. However, the shooting woes would take over from there.
The Cajuns would go scoreless for the next four minutes and Denver stretched the lead back into double-digits at 47-33 with 3:39 remaining.
The Cajuns would pull to within 10 at 49-39 with 2:10 remaining, but Denver's Melissa Garcia drained a three-pointer to end any hopes of a Cajuns' comeback and give the Pioneers a 52-39 lead.
The first half was nip-and-tuck. The largest lead was four and there were four lead changes before the break.
Richey led the Cajuns, posting her fifth double-double of the season (15 points, 10 rebounds) and blocking two shots. She now stands two blocks from tying the single-season record and three from breaking it.
Nikki Weddle did it all for the Pioneers. She drilled three three-pointers and led all Pioneers with 19 points.
Louisiana-Lafayette didn't help themselves either, shooting 8-for-25 (32 percent) in the second half and turning the ball over 14 times as well. For the game the Cajuns shot 17-for-51 (33.3 percent) and turned it over 24 times. The Pioneers shot 39.3 percent after the break, compared to 29 percent in the first half.
The Cajuns hit the road next week. Louisiana-Lafayette travels to South Alabama (10-3, 0-1 SBC) on Thursday and New Orleans on Saturday. The next home game is Thursday, Jan. 10 against Western Kentucky at 7 p.m.
-Ragin' Cajuns-
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