TicketsNov. 30, 2005
CINCINNATI, Ohio - Xavier made its first 12 shots of the game and shot over 70 percent in the first half to ride to an 87-60 win over Cincinnati in women's basketball action in Cintas Center on Wednesday night.
The Bearcats (3-1) fell for the first time this year and lost to the Musketeers (4-1) in consecutive meetings for the first time since 1994.
UC got a career night from freshman Kahla Roudebush, who had 16 points and four rebounds. She was joined in double-figures by fellow freshmen Shelly Bellman with 13 and Jill Stephens with 10. Bellman added a game-high eight rebounds and Stephens grabbed six boards.
Tara Boothe was unstoppable for XU, making her first 12 shots and finishing with 30 points on 12-of-13 shooting, including making all three of her three-point attempts. Kristy Wallner added 10 points and seven rebounds for the Musketeers, who shot 50 percent for the game.
UC got 20 points off of offensive rebounds and held a 45 to 35 edge on the boards, but shot just 35 percent and committed 20 turnovers.
"I think this will be a wake-up call for us," said head coach Laurie Pirtle. "We knew Xavier was a very good, experienced team and they put pressure on us all night. They really showed our weaknesses and caused us a lot of frustration on the offensive end. I know we will be better from this game because it showed our young kids what we need to do to be a really good team."
UC is next in action on Saturday, Dec. 3 when it hosts Eastern Illinois at 7:30 p.m. in Fifth Third Arena.
Boothe opened the scoring with a three-pointer and scored 11 points in XU's game-opening run. The Bearcats got a three-pointer by Treasure Humphries to get into the scoring column with 15:56 to play, but the Musketeers were already ahead by 14.
When XU finally missed a shot with just over 11 minutes to play in the first half, it owned a 28-7 lead.
The game was about even for the rest of the half, as Xavier used a 6-0 run to pull ahead, 42-16, but the Bearcats answered with a 10-2 stretch to close to 18 before the half. All the scoring in that run was by freshmen, who totaled 46 of UC's 60 points in the game.
Booth had 23 points at the break on 9-of-9 shooting as XU led, 49-30. Michelle Jones led UC with seven. The Musketeers were 19-of-27 (.704) from the floor and committed just three turnovers. The Bearcats had 12 turnovers and made just 12-of-36 shots from the field (.333).
In the second half, Booth scored five-straight points in a 7-0 run that pushed the XU advantage to 59-34 at the 16:20 mark. The lead was still 25 when the UC defense held XU without a point for two and a half minutes and scored eight themselves to close to 61-44 with 13:22 to play.
UC was down 18 with 11 minutes left when Humphries was forced to the bench with her fourth foul and the offense did not produce a field goal for seven minutes after that. Xavier went on a 17-2 run to take its biggest lead, 83-50, with five minutes left.
The Bearcats did not give in, as Bellman scored three points down the stretch and Roudebush carded five in the last minute to account for the final margin.