TicketsNov. 7, 2008
CINCINNATI - The University of Cincinnati women's basketball team dropped its exhibition finale, 60-54, against the Ohio Girl's Basketball Report Legends on Friday night (Nov. 7) at Fifth Third Arena.
Kahla Roudebush (Noblesville, Ind./Hamilton Southeastern) scored a team-high 15 points for the Bearcats and added a team-high six rebounds. Shelly Bellman (Ottawa, Ohio/Ottawa-Glandorf) tallied 10 points with four rebounds and four assists.
Courtney Coleman led the OGBR Legends with a game-high 16 points.
"We competed and played hard," head coach J. Kelley Hall said. "We are a pretty good defensive team, but we had 14 turnovers which led to easy points for them in transition."
The Bearcats forced 21 turnovers, but turned it over 14 times themselves, leading to 21 points for the visitors. OGBR outscored UC, 32-18, in the paint.
Down by as much as seven in the first half, UC used a 20-6 run over an eight-minute span to jump to a 30-23 lead with 3:02 to play in the first stanza. A Courtney Coleman jumper cut the lead to five, 30-25, at the break.
Roudebush hit a three and Bellman added a jumper to push the Bearcats lead to 10, 35-25, at the start of the second half. A Kim Wilburn three was countered by Val Schuster's (Wausau, Wis./Wausau Newman Senior) triple to retain the 10-point lead with 17:03 to play.
Two threes with a transition layup sandwiched in between cut the Bearcats lead to three at 38-35.
UC pushed the lead back to as much as nine (52-43) with 9:21 to play, but the OGBR Legends ended the game on a 17-2 run.
With the game tied at 52, the Bearcats missed four shots on one trip down the floor. The UC defense held, but a UC turnover led to a breakaway layup for Wilburn and OGBR sunk four free throws down the stretch to seal the win.
UC outrebounded the bigger OGBR squad, but was outshot, .469 (23-49) to .339 (21-62).
The Bearcats open the regular season on Nov. 14 against Detroit at 7 p.m. in Fifth Third Arena.