TicketsBearcats Lose 15-Point Lead, Game at Toledo
Contact: Geoff Wiswell
11/19/2004
Anne Stephens scored a team-high 18 points on Friday night. |
TOLEDO, Ohio ? A seven-minute scoring drought by the University of Cincinnati women?s basketball team led to the loss of a 15-point lead and a 62-57 defeat at Toledo on Friday night. It was the season opening game for both teams.
Anne Stephens hit a pair of baskets and Karen Twehues made one of her four three-pointers to give the Bearcats a 43-28 advantage with 15:30 left in the game.
UC then failed to score a point for 7:10 as UT scored the next 15 points to tie the game at 43-43. Danielle Bishop had five of her game-high 23 in the run and Karen Hoogendam had four points.
Twehues ended the drought with a triple, but Bishop answered with one of her own. The teams traded baskets until Bishop made a basket and then two free throws for the Rockets? first lead at 52-50.
She extended it to a 56-52 advantage with 1:30 remaining before Leslie Knoch made a three-pointer to move the Bearcats back within one at the 1:12 mark. Bishop, however, put the game away with her third trey of the game.
?We were a different team altogether in the second half,? said head coach Laurie Pirtle. ?We didn?t defend, we didn?t rebound and we didn?t take good shots. I thought we were tentative and gave them too many wide open looks. In the first half we were aggressive and pressured them and it worked. We just played a different game in the second half.?
UC shot just .273 in the second half after making .467 of its shots in the first 20 minutes. UT shot .452 in the second half and forced 18 Bearcat turnovers.
Stephens, who scored 12 of UC?s 21 second-half points, finished with a team-high 18 points. Twehues finished with 15 points as the only other Bearcat in double-figures.
Toni Slaughter had eight rebounds and freshman Ashley Brown recorded seven boards, four points and three steals in a starting role. Knoch dished out a career-high seven assists.
Hoogendam finished with 19 points and a game-high 13 rebounds to go with two blocks and two steals.
After a slow start by both team, Brown keyed a Bearcat spurt as her first two scores of her career helped UC to an 8-4 lead four minutes in.
UC held a 13-10 lead with 11:24 left when it went on a 10-2 run, holding the Rockets without a field goal for almost four minutes. Slaughter had a pair of scores in the run and Bellva May added a three-pointer for her first basket as a Bearcat.
Bishop pulled UT to within 25-16 with 6:36 left, but May and Twehues answered with back-to-back triples to push the lead to 31-16.
The teams went on a four-minute drought before an offensive explosion in the final 1:25. Olivia Terry made a three-pointer for the Rockets with 53 seconds left and Hoogendam added a bucket three seconds later to pull to 33-24.
Twehues provided the halftime margin as she sank her second trey for a 36-24 lead with 27 seconds left.
Seven Bearcats scored in the first half as they shot .467 from the field. Twehues had a team-high nine, while May, Slaughter and Stephens all had six. Knoch dished out five assists and Slaughter grabbed six rebounds.
Toledo shot just .357 in the first half and was led by Hoogendam?s 10 points and four rebounds.
The Bearcats open their home schedule when they host Detroit on Sunday, Nov. 21 at 2 p.m. in Fifth Third Arena.