Nov. 19, 2004

Box Score

The University of Texas-Pan American women's basketball team fell to Marshall University in its first regular-season game, 79-43, at the Fifth Third MU Classic on Friday (Nov. 19) at the Cam Henderson Center. The Lady Broncs were unable to overcome the dominating defense and solid post performance of MU.

The intense full court defense of the Thundering Herd seemed to be the determining factor in the loss as the Lady Broncs suffered in their first game at the tournament. UTPA was unable to handle the pressure, finishing the game with 28 turnovers while Marshall jumped off to an early lead that continued though out the game.

That tough defense forced UTPA into a poor shooting performance, ending the half shooting only 11 percent (3-27) from the field. On the other side, the Herd shot 52 percent from the field to add to their dominating defensive performance and headed to the locker room up 45-14 at the half.

The one area that the Lady Broncs led during the contest was on the offensive boards. Though they lost the overall board battle, 47-44, UTPA was able to pull down 18 offensive rebounds compared to MU's 11. Even with the second chance opportunities, the Lady Broncs were unable to spark any sort of offensive momentum.

In the second half of play, the Lady Broncs found themselves only being outscored by five points (29-34), but the huge lead by Marshall in the first half was too much to overcome. MU continued to shoot well from the floor, finishing the game at 49 percent while the Lady Broncs finished at 19 percent.

Junior guard, Devin Reed (Indianapolis, IN/Cowley County C.C.) was the team's high scorer with eight points, going 6-6 from the free throw line and 1-6 from the field, while teammate MaHogany Daniel (Corpus Christi, TX/Mary Carroll H.S.) grabbed a team-high six boards. The defense down low made it hard for UTPA to have any post presence inside on offense. The post players combined for 2-7 on the game with starting center Molly Schamel (Hector, NY/Yavapai College) was shut out of the offense never attempting a field goal.

Marshall's Sikeet Shepard-Hall led all scorers with 21 points - 17 of them coming in the first half. Teammate Crystal Champion was a perfect 6-6 from the floor, recording 12 points and seven rebounds. Modupe Ishola was also close to flawless going 7-8 from the field to record a double-double with 14 points and 10 boards. The Thundering Herd also had four players who were perfect from the line where the team finished the game at 71 percent.

In earlier tournament play, Lehigh took their record to 1-0 beating UNC-Ashville, 61-51.

UTPA moves to 0-1 on the season and will tip-off against UNCA at 11 a.m. for the consolation game of the tournament.

UTPA Sports Information