Feb. 16, 2004
Edinburg, Texas - Texas Pan American used two big runs
in each half to gain revenge on Louisiana-Lafayette, 56-38 at the UTPA
Fieldhouse tonight. The Ragin Cajuns had beaten the Lady Broncs, 62-54 on
January 11. The victory was the 11th of the season which tied the school record
for wins at the NCAA Division I level. UTPA won 11 games during the 2000-01
season.
The whole first half was huge run for the
Lady Broncs. UTPA scored the first ten points of the game before Tiffany
Washington hit a jumper with 13:06 left to break the shut out. That was one
of only two times in the first half that the Ragin Cajuns were able to cut the
lead to less than 10 points.
Texas-Pan American had a 39-23 lead with
13:55 to go when Louisiana-Lafayette decided to mount a comeback. Over the next
almost six minutes, ULL out scored the Lady Broncs 14-4 to close the gap to
41-37 with 7:57 left. Then it was UTPA's rally turn as they finished the game on
a 15-1 run.
For Texas-Pan American (11-13) Kristi Dudley (Fr./Cedar Hill, Texas/Cedar Hill HS) had 16 points while Amanda Carlow (Sr./Pine Ridge, S.D./Northeast JC) had nine assists, seven steals
and blocked two shots.
For Louisiana-Lafayette (12-11), Anna
Petrakova had 15 points, 10 rebounds and blocked two shots while
Washington had eight points and 10 rebounds.
"Tonight was a huge stepping stone for our
team and program." said head caoch DeAnn Craft. "They are an upper
echelon Sun Belt team. I think we had a perimeter game plan coming in on how we
going to try and contain Petrakova and Washington. The first time
we went with a zone defense. We switched it up this game. I thought the shots
from the perimeter we forced them to take contributed to them shooting 23.2 %
from the floor. I felt we battled harder on the boards and got good performances
from several players off the bench. The overall school record for wins is 12 and
that is within our reach. We definitely are going to shoot for that."
Texas-Pan American returns to the UTPA
Fieldhouse, Thursday, February 19 to take on IPFW. The Lady Broncs beat the
Mastodons, 75-72 on January 31. The game is scheduled to start at 5:00 p.m.
