TicketsSlaughter's 20 Points Not Enough as UC Eliminated
Contact: Geoff Wiswell
3/3/2005
Toni Slaughter scored 20 points on 8-of-16 shooting. |
CHARLOTTE, N.C. ? Cincinnati shot just 30 percent from the floor and committed 21 turnovers as the Bearcats were eliminated from the Conference USA Tournament by host Charlotte, 63-46, on Thursday night in Halton Arena.
Toni Slaughter led the 11th-seeded Bearcats with 20 points on 8-of-16 shooting, but the rest of the team made just 9-of-41 field goal attempts. The 21 turnovers led to 25 49er points. UC was outscored 22 to 10 at the foul line.
?Their pressure really hurt us,? said head coach Laurie Pirtle, ?and our young guns didn?t respond. Our kids never gave up, though, and we played hard till the end.?
Cincinnati finishes the year with a 9-19 record, while the No. 6 seed Charlotte climbs to 22-7 and will face No. 3 seed Houston on Friday in the quarterfinals.
Sakellie Daniels scored a game-high 22 points for Charlotte, 18 coming in the first half when the 49ers shot 46 percent from the field to take a 38-23 lead by halftime.
The game started slow, with neither team netting a field goal in the first three minutes. Slaughter made UC?s first for a 3-2 lead after four minutes. Charlotte then embarked on a 13-3 run to take a 15-6 lead. Daniels scored the final seven points of the run.
Micah Harvey made four free throws as UC scored the next six points to close to 15-12 with 10 minutes left in the half.
With the score 17-14, the 49ers scored the next nine points and 13 of the next 15 to pull to a 14-point lead. Sabrina Gregory scored five points in the stretch.
Slaughter hit two jumpers and Bellva May scored to pull UC within nine, 31-22, with 3:16 to go, but Daniels scored six points in an 8-0 Charlottte run before the break.
UC made just 8-of-29 shots in the first half (.276) and committed 14 turnovers.
?Our hats off to Charlotte,? added Pirtle. ?They had a really good game plan and executed it. We thought we got good looks early, but we missed them and then we got desperate.?
The second half was an offensive struggle for both teams. Anne Stephens scored twice to pull the Bearcats within 11, 40-29, after two minutes, but UC made only one more score in the next seven and a half minutes as the Charlotte lead ballooned to 52-31.
UC held the 49ers without a field goal for 10 minutes, but could only knock the lead down to 14 with 3:46 to go. The Bearcats managed just two scores after that.
Emy Ogide had a team-high eight rebounds for UC and Stephens scored nine points. Daniels added six rebounds, six assists and four steals for Charlotte and Tameka Smith had 11 points and 11 rebounds.