TicketsJan. 20, 2007
- It's the one that got away. The had Seton Hall on the line, but the Pirates slipped through its grasps with a 58-57 BIG EAST win over UC Saturday at Fifth Third Arena.
"We were playing very flat," said UC head coach Laurie Pirtle. "We kind of got back on track in the second half but then we reverted back and they end up scoring 11 points in three minutes. In this game you constantly have to find ways to get up, emotionally. You have to play wired for every game and I don't think we did that."
The Bearcats (11-7, 2-4 BIG EAST) owned a 55-49 lead with 1:46 to play in the contest. UC committed five turnovers and fouled twice in that span. Heta Korpivaara, who scored a game-high 26 points, got the Pirates (10-8, 2-5 BIG EAST) within one on a jumper with 17 seconds to play. Then came one of UC's turnovers and Ela Mukosiej sank the game-winner with eight ticks to go.
Freshman Carla Jacobs dribbled the length of the floor and went up for the game-winning lay up, but it banked a little high on the glass and rimmed out.
Michelle Jones was UC's leading scorer with 14 points and she was one rebound from reaching a double-double in three consecutive games. Shelly Bellman put together a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds. Treasure Humphries added 12 points and Jacobs chipped in 10.
The see-saw game ended up having nine ties and eight lead changes. The Bearcats got their first lead of the second half on a Bellman jumper to go up, 38-37. SHU regained a 48-47 lead with 6:30 to play, but then took over. SHU went nearly five minutes without converting a basket and the Bearcats owned their biggest lead of the night, 55-48, with 2:06 remaining in the game. That's when the Pirates hit their second wind and picked up the win, breaking a five-game losing streak.
UC trailed by a basket, 31-29, after the first half. Korpivaara unloaded 20 points on the Bearcats in the first 20 minutes. The Pirates jumped out to a 6-2 lead and by as much as six points with 4:19 to play.
There were two lead changes and six ties in the first period. got its first lead of the game when Bellman drained a trey on the pass from Humphries to put UC up 15-13 with 12:04 remaining in the half. Korpivaara hit one of her 10 field goals to tie it back up moments later. Jill Stephens dropped stepped and put laid in a shot to give UC its last lead of the half, 17-15.
Humphries hit two free throws and Bellman banked in a lay up to cut the lead to two with 1:41 on the clock. The Bearcats had ample opportunity to tie or take the lead in the waning seconds. had three offensive rebounds in the final minute and a Humphries' trey at the buzzer was just off the mark. The Bearcats had 23 rebounds to SHU's 14.
After playing three home games in a week, the Bearcats will play on the road at on Tuesday, Jan. 23 at 8 p.m.