TicketsDec. 11, 2005
CINCINNATI, Ohio - Cincinnati forced a season-high 28 turnovers and improved to 5-0 at home with a 71-61 win over Fordham in women's basketball action on Sunday afternoon at Fifth Third Arena. Seven players had five points or more for the Bearcats.
Freshman Jill Stephens led three players in double-figures with 13 points, making 7-of-10 free throws. Micah Harvey, in her first game of the season after recovering from a knee injury, also made 7-of-10 free throws and finished with 10 points. Treasure Humphries scored 10 points on 5-of-7 shooting and made seven steals, one short of the school record.
UC (5-1), which leads the nation with a +19.6 rebounding margin, recorded a 38 to 25 advantage on the boards and a 15 to two edge in second-chance points. Anne Stephens grabbed a game-high six rebounds, four on the offensive end, and scored seven points. Shelly Bellman had nine points and handed out a career-high five assists.
Five Rams (3-4) finished the game in double-digit scoring, led by Lisa Carrol with 17. Daniela Roark added 12 and Jada Jefferson recorded 11 points and six rebounds.
The Bearcats made just eight-of-25 field goals in the second half and watched a 25-point lead shrink to six with a minute to play. UC was held to no field goals in the final seven minutes and was a season-low 62 percent (23-of-37) from the foul line.
"We got flat," said head coach Laurie Pirtle. "It was a general lack of intensity. This team has such a competitive nature that I didn't think they had this kind of a let down in them. Now I know and we will work to make sure it doesn't happen again."
UC led 44-28 with 16 minutes left in the game when the Bearcats embarked on a 13-4 run to gain a 25-point lead. Kahla Roudebush had all six of her points in the run and Anne Stephens chipped in four points.
After Roudebush closed the run to give UC a 57-32 lead with 8:42 left, the Bearcat offense produced just one more field goal for the rest of the game. A 24-5 run by Fordham made the score 64-58 with 57 seconds left. The Bearcats had trouble with turnovers and shot just 10-of-16 from the line in the final two minutes.
The Rams' only three-pointers of the game came in the final three minutes, as Roark made two and Carrol had one. Roark had nine points in the comeback attempt. After it was cut to six, the Bearcats recovered to make 7-of-10 free throws and allowed just a triple by Roark as the clock expired.
UC is next in action on Wednesday, Dec. 14 at 4 p.m. against Texas-Arlington in Fifth Third Arena.
The teams traded scores back and forth at the beginning of the game and were tied a 6-6 with 16:26 to go. UC then held Fordham without a score for five minutes and ran off 12-straight points with the help of its full-court press. Humphries scored twice in the run and Bellman added a score and a pair of assists.
The lead grew to 14 when Karen Twehues made a three-pointer with 10 minutes left to make the score 23-9. A pair of scores by Carrol helped the Rams close to 27-16 with 6:56 left in the half.
The Bearcats then ran-off the next eight points, including a three-pointer by Harvey for her first points of the year. Bellman's jumper to end the run, and make the score 35-16 with 3:53 left, was UC's last field goal of the half. The Rams scored six of the final nine points to close to 38-22 at halftime.
UC shot 52 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes as Humphries led the team with eight points on 4-of-5 shooting. She also had six of UC's eight steals and two assists. Bellman added six points and a game-high five assists.
The Bearcats forced 17 turnovers and scored 19 points off of them. The Rams shot 44 percent from the field, but took 13 fewer shots than UC. Heather Westrol led Fordham with seven points and Jefferson added five points and five rebounds.