Jan. 16, 2010

Final Stats

EDINBURG, TX-- With four Lady Broncs in double figures, the University of Texas-Pan American women's basketball team defeated Chicago State University (CSU) Saturday (Jan. 16) by a score of 70-60 at the UTPA Fieldhouse. With the win the Lady Broncs are now 2-0 in Great West Conference play.

CSU opened up the first half with an 11-0 run before a basket by Aleeya Grigsby with 18:04 left in the first half put the Lady Broncs on the board. Over the next six minutes, the Lady Broncs chipped away at CSU's lead before a pair of free throws by Bianca Torre made the score 26-24 with 5:22 on the clock, giving the Lady Broncs their first lead of the game. For the remainder of the first half, the two teams traded baskets with the Lady Broncs taking a 33-30 lead into the locker room.

In the second half, behind solid defense, the Lady Broncs were able to stretch their lead to as many as 13 points before eventually pulling off the 70-60 win.

"We came out and played extremely hard. We had a little lapse there, and got out of the gate slow. We were just tremendously focused, buying into being committed to playing defense for all 40 minutes," said women's head coach Denny Downing. "I can't say enough about the effort Marah (Guzman) and Bianca (Torre) gave. They kept the defense on their heels," added Downing.

Torre scored a game high 19 points and dished out nine assists for the Lady Broncs. Rose Esther Jean finished with a double double with 16 points, 11 rebounds and three blocked shots. Marah Guzman and Maria Ben Erlingsdottir each added 13 points to round out the top scorers for the Lady Broncs.

The tandem of Alyssa and Courtney Waldon led CSU scorers with 13 and 11 points respectively.

The Lady Broncs shot 41.8% from the field, 31.6% from beyond the three-point line and 78.3% from the free-throw line. CSU shot 34.4% from the field, 27.3% from behind the three-point arc and 76.9% from the free-throw line.

"You need to win your home games in conference. We're just taking it one game at a time," added Downing. "The conference schedule is in our favor right now, but at the end of the year, we'll be on the road, so it's very important we take care of our home court," said Downing.

The Lady Broncs return to action when they host North Dakota State on Thursday, January 28, at the UTPA Fieldhouse with tip-off set for 5:45 p.m. CST.