Tulsa Women Comes Up Short Against UTEP, 70-67
2/4/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 4, 2005
El Paso, Texas - UTEP's Marta Dydek led all scorers with 19 points and the Miners' stingy defense held Tulsa to just 32.8 percent from the field in a 70-67 win over the Golden Hurricane at the Don Haskins Center.
Tulsa (14-6, 6-4 WAC) entered the game in a three-way tie for second place in the Western Athletic Conference standings, while UTEP (9-11, 4-6 WAC) was in eighth-place after losing four straight.
The Miners led for a majority of the game, but never held a lead larger than 10 points. UTEP shot 52-percent in the second half, sinking 13 of 25 field goal attempts, and connected on 13 of 16 free throw attempts for 81.3 percent. The Miners led by eight points with 0:36 remaining in the game, but Tulsa would not go away. The Hurricane scored six straight points to pull to within three points and senior Sarah Newby stole an inbounds pass with 0:03 remaining near half court and passed the ball to junior Kara Pongonis on the right side. Pongonis' three-point attempt to tie the game and send the contest into overtime fell short as time expired.
Tulsa had numerous chances to scrape back into the game, but every time the Hurricane scored UTEP answered back immediately. TU trailed by four points with 3:18 remaining and Pongonis missed back-to-back three-point attempts that would have pulled Tulsa to within a single point. The Hurricane struggled from the field, and was a miserable 2 of 21 from behind the three-point line after draining 10 treys against Hawaii in the previous game.
Junior Emily Jaskowiak came off the bench to lead TU with 17 points. Jaskowiak converted all six of her field goal attempts and was 5-of-6 from the charity stripe. Sophomore Jillian Robbins was the only other Golden Hurricane player to reach double figures with 16 points, and she also pulled down a game-high nine rebounds. Tulsa out-rebounded UTEP, 43-38.
Dydek was one of four Miners to finish in double digits. Charnette Phelps scored 16 points, while Kasia Krezel and Shalana Taylor added 13 and 12 points, respectively. UTEP shot 42.6 percent from the field for the game.
TU started off strong in the first half by opening the game with a 6-0 run, and led for most of the first half. UTEP kept the game close with Dydek scoring 11 of her 19 points in the opening period. The Miners took a brief lead on a lay-up by Krezel, but a pair of Jaskowiak free throws regained the lead for the Hurricane. However, UTEP recaptured the lead for good on a jumper by Jonna Launiainen at the 7:38 mark in the first half and the Miners never trailed again, and took a 29-24 lead into the locker room at halftime.
