Nov. 28, 2004
Box Score
The University of Texas-Pan American women's basketball team fell short for their second consecutive road loss to University of Tulsa, 65-49, at the Reynolds Center in Tulsa, OK, on Sunday (Nov. 28).
The Lady Broncs played a very impressive first half against the Golden Hurricane, but were unable to sustain the same energy in the second half of action.
"I think our play in the first half may have been the best basketball I've seen played in my time here at UTPA. We were very intense on both ends of the floor, and we just all seemed to be on the same page with one another," stated head coach DeAnn Craft after her team's first half performance.
The lead was built early after freshman Kathy Guin (Guthrie, OK/Guthrie H.S.) sparked her team's momentum with a three-pointer to take the score to 5-1 with 17:39 to go in the half. Devin Reed (Indianapolis, IN/Cowley County C.C.) would then score inside off a pass from freshman Tynesha Pierce (Houston, TX/Westfield H.S.) to take the score to 7-1 at 16:43. The Lady Broncs kept things moving following a defensive rebound then getting the ball inside where Pierce would score to finish an eight-point run at the 16:06 mark. Pierce would finish the game with 10 points and two assists.
"Ty really stepped up and answered the call for us. She proved that she can play for us, and I think that this was her statement game. This is the type of performance that we need from her," said Craft.
With the flow of the game in their favor and 6:06 to play in the first half, UTPA would build their largest lead at 24-13 off a Stacey Gooden (Houston, TX/ J.F. Dobie H.S.) lay-up. The Lady Broncs would cruise to a 34-25 lead at the end of the half.
"It was such a good first half for us. We were playing aggressive everywhere on the floor and making things happen. We didn't have any down time in the first twenty minutes, and we were able to keep the momentum," commented Craft.
In the second half of action, the Golden Hurricane scored three times off of UTPA turnovers to cut the lead to four with 16:24 to play. They would then come within one after a jumper by All-American candidate Megan Moody, who finished with 11 points. UTPA's Dominique Montague (Gilbert, AZ/Central Arizona Co.) would hit from behind the arc to push the lead back to four points before Tulsa went on a nine-point run to go up 46-37 with 11:07 remaining in the game.
"Offensively, they really slowed us down and took us out of our game. Our best basketball is played when we can get up and down in transition, and they really took that away from us in the second half by pulling down offensive boards and turning those second opportunities into points," stated Craft.
Pierce would hit another jumper to come back to within seven at 46-39 with 10:22 to go, but Tulsa was able to answer when Jillian Robbins scored a lay-up inside to keep the distance at nine points. The Golden Hurricane then built the lead to 14 with less than four minutes to play, and held off the Lady Broncs en route to victory.
"I felt we were playing against a really deep team. In the second half that really hurt us because they were 10 players deep and continued the momentum with every sub. Overall, we did a good job of containing Moody and the other guards, but we gave up too many easy buckets inside to make a dent in the lead," concluded Craft.
Molly Schamel (Hector, NY/Yavapai College) and Pierce led UTPA with 10 points apiece. Schamel and Reed both grabbed a team-high six rebounds. Montague added eight points for the Lady Broncs, and Guin recorded a team-high six assists.
For Tulsa, Robbins led all scorers with 21 points and 15 rebounds.
The Lady Broncs will return to play at home in doubleheader action with the men against Southwestern Assemblies of God on Wednesday (Dec. 1). Game time is set for 5:00 p.m.
UTPA Sports Information
