Dec. 22, 2005
Box Score
The UTPA women's basketball team (3-9) picked up their second-straight win on Thursday (Dec. 22) with a 73-71 victory over Texas A&M International (8-4) at the UTPA Fieldhouse.
The Lady Broncs trailed for much of the first half after Valerie Villanueva hit a three-pointer with 15:01 on the clock to give the Dustdevils a two point lead. TAMIU would lead until Dottie Knerr (Winter Park, FL/Winter Park H.S.) hit a jumper with five second left in the half.
UTPA took the lead on a Tynesha Pierce (Houston, TX/Westfield H.S.) jumper in the paint at the 19:26 mark and never trailed the rest of the game. The Lady Broncs increased their lead to a game-high 12 with just 2:41 left to play on a Knerr jumper. However, in the remaining 2:41, the Dustdevils stormed back to tie the game at 71 a piece with 24 seconds on the clock. UTPA once again went to Knerr for a jumper from the top of the key with six seconds to go for the game-winner. A TAMIU desperation shot from half-court fell well short of the goal.
Knerr had a career-night, setting new career-highs in points (18) and rebounds (17) for the first double-double of her career at UTPA. The Lady Bronc forward connected on 8-12 shooting and was 2-3 from the charity stripe. Knerr's previous highs in points and rebounds were 10 and eight respectively.
"Dottie played a very good offensive game for us and had a great presence on the boards. We still need for her to commit on the defensive end to become a complete player, but her effort on the boards was the best of her career," said head coach DeAnn Craft.
Junior MaHogany Daniel (Corpus Christi, TX/Mary Carroll H.S.) also turned in a double-double for the Lady Broncs, scoring 11 points while pulling down 14 rebounds, 11 of which were on the offensive end. Daniel was 5-15 shooting in 20 minutes of action.
"MaHogany really made a statement to herself and to us tonight. She had a tough game on Tuesday but she came back tonight very active and aggressive. She's still thinking too much on the floor and needs to go up strong on her shots just like she does on rebounds," added Craft.
Two other Lady Broncs scored in double-digits, including Pierce, who scored 17 points in the game. She connected on 8-13 from the field while also pulling down six rebounds. Pierce also added two steals, two assists and one block. Freshman Teshay Winfrey (Houston, TX/Eisenhower H.S.) notched 11 points and four rebounds. From the free throw line, she connected on 7-8 shots and was 2-9 from the field. Winfrey also recorded three assists and three steals.
The Dustdevils had a better shooting percentage than the Lady Broncs (41%-38%), but took 10 less shots. UTPA dominated the boards, nearly doubling TAMIU's total rebounds, 60-33. The Lady Broncs 60 was one shy of the program record 61, set in 1998 against Florida Atlantic. UTPA committed 28 turnovers, 15 in the second half, giving the Dustdevils plenty of opportunities to stay in the game during the final stanza.
"We knew they were going to come after us and they played a half-court game for a while, controlling the pace of the game. When the game expanded and the tempo picked up, we were careless with the ball and gave them life," stated Craft.
The Lady Broncs will return to the court as they host the Battle at the Border on Dec. 29-30. Participating in the tournament will be UTPA, UTEP, Texas State and Texas Southern. The first two games are on the 29th with UTEP vs. Texas Southern at 5:00 p.m. followed by the Lady Broncs vs. Texas State at 7:00 p.m. at the UTPA Fieldhouse.
UTPA Sports Information
