TicketsMarch 16, 2006
MIAMI - Cincinnati came back from 10 points down with under four minutes to play to force overtime, but fell to Florida International, 81-75, in opening round action of the Women's National Invitational Tournament on Thursday evening.
The Bearcats finish the season 17-12, posting an eight-game improvement despite entering the BIG EAST Conference. FIU improved to 19-12 with the win and moves on to face Miami on Saturday.
Despite trailing by just one at halftime, UC never led in the second half. FIU led, 57-47, with 3:35 to play when Jill Stephens started the comeback with a pair of free throws. Karen Twehues followed with her third three-pointer of the half to pull within five, 57-52, with 2:53 left.
FIU was still ahead by six with 1:24 to play when Treasure Humphries scored a lay-up to close to 62-58 and UC forced a turnover on the next possession. The Bearcats missed two three-pointers, but kept grabbing offensive rebounds, allowing Humphries to hit a jumper to cut the deficit to two with 36 seconds on the clock.
The Bearcats, who pressed much of the second half, forced another turnover to regain the ball with 32 seconds left. Micah Harvey found Stephens underneath for the tying score with seven seconds left and Humphries stole the inbounds pass, but her potential game-tying shot bounced off the rim.
"Our kids showed a lot of passion in our comeback and I'm proud of the way they fought to put the game into overtime," said head coach Laurie Pirtle. "We got aggressive with our press and knocked them back on their heels."
In overtime, FIU scored the first four points at the line and led by five with 3:45 to play. Michelle Jones and Harvey scored to close to one and a Shelly Bellman jumper with 1:39 left gave UC its first lead since the first half, 73-72.
UC would not score again until FIU had used a three-point play and two more free throws to go back ahead by four with under 30 seconds left. The Golden Panthers made all 15 free throw attempts in the overtime period.
"It was a really hard fought game and a very physical one," added Pirtle. "Both teams showed a lot of guts and at the end they made a few more plays."
UC put five players in double-figures for the game, led by 17 by Twehues on 5-of-10 shooting from behind the arc. Jones scored 12 points, Bellman and Humphries added 11 and Stephens scored 10. Bellman added nine rebounds and four steals.
Senior Micah Harvey, playing in her final game, handed out six assists to move into third-place on UC's career chart with 435.
UC was called for 33 fouls in the game to 22 for FIU and was attempted just 23 free throws to 42 for the Golden Panthers. The Bearcats made just 12 of their free throws and shot just .363 from the field for the game.
UC forced 27 turnovers and scored 25 points off them to counter .418 shooting by FIU.
Lasma Jekabsone had 22 points for FIU, as did Faeza Bouderra, who made 18-of-20 free throws.
The first half featured five ties and five lead changes as neither team got into an offensive rhythm. UC used an eight-rebound advantage and nine second-chance points to counter an 11 to six advantage in free throws by FIU.
The largest lead of the half for the Golden Panthers was four with 12:53 left before the half, but UC scored the next seven points, four by Bellman, to earn its largest lead of the game, 16-13.
From their the game stayed within three until FIU opened the second half with a 14-3 run to take its largest lead, 44-32, with 12:51 left in the game. Back-to-back threes by Twehues cut the lead to six with 9:48 to play, but FIU quickly pushed it back to 11.