No. 22 Cal, unranked Indiana return Rock women to losing ways
By Tim Durr
Issue date: 2/5/10 Section: Sports
| |
|
On Wednesday, SRU faced off with host California for a PSAC-West game against the No. 22 ranked Vulcans.
The Rock opened the game competitively and was able to pull to a 5-3 lead after senior guard Chere' Marshall hit a 3-pointer with 18:27 left in the t half.
The Vulcans started a 10-1 run and opened a 26-12 gap over the next four minutes. The Rock battled back, attempting to tighten the game, but could get no closer than 13 points. Cal then started another run, outscoring SRU 10-0 and opening a 42-19 lead with 2:14 left in the half.
SRU was down 29 points, 51-22, at the half. Senior guard Nikki Presto said that the team has been hurt by fundamentals all season.
"We have been hurt by turnovers and rebounding all year," she said.
The Rock started off the second half with some sign of life after another Marshall 3-pointer, making the score 51-25. The Vulcans answered and went on a 15-2 run, opening the gap to 39 points, 66-27, with 12:40 left in the half. Cal continued to run away with the score against the Rock, finishing with 97-47-the biggest lead of the game. The Vulcans had better numbers than the Rock in all categories Wednesday night, shooting 51.3 percent (40-for-78) compared to SRU's 32 percent (16-for-50). The Rock was outrebounded 50-24 and had 14 more turnovers than Cal, 27-13.
Marshall led the team with 10 points and was one of four players who led the Rock with four rebounds. Senior guard Julie Molloy contributed seven points to the Rock's total while Presto led the team with three assists.
On Saturday, when SRU played IUP at the Rock, it took a 3-2 lead when Molloy hit a 3-pointer. But the Crimson Hawks responded with a 7-0 run to take a 9-3 lead with 16:55 left in the half. The Rock ended the Crimson Hawks's run with a freshman guard Bethany Caudill 3-pointer, pulling within three points at the 16:23 mark. But SRU couldn't pull back into the lead as IUP opened up an eight-point lead, 16-8, with 13:21 remaining in the first half.
Over the next five minutes, SRU rallied back within one point as freshman center Tynesha Lee, Presto and Marshall all contributed points to the 8-1 run, making the game 17-16 with 8:17 in the half.
The Crimson Hawks battled close with SRU and wasn't able to take sizeable lead until going up by seven with 3:30 to play in the half.
SRU continued to play tough and keep the pressure on IUP but could never regain the lead in the first half after its 3-2 lead early in the game. At halftime, Indiana held a 30-24 lead over SRU.
In the first half, the Rock had a better shooting percentage from the floor, shooting 45 percent (9-for-20) compared to Indiana's 42.9 percent (12-for-28). SRU was also able to outshoot Indiana from beyond the arc with a 42.9 percent (3-for-7) compared to 33.3 percent (4-for-12). Lee, a prominent rebounder for the Rock, believes that the extra shots by IUP can be accredited to SRU's lack of rebounding.
"We have struggled with rebounding," she said. "I believe that we are in position, but need to be more physical and that will help us get more opportunities."
As the game progressed into the second half, the Rock found itself within three points, 32-29. After two minutes of scoreless action, IUP started an 8-0 run to take a 40-29 lead.
The Rock could pull no closer than within two points in the second half when Molloy hit a 3-pointer, bringing the score to 52-50 with 4:08 to play.
In the final four minutes, the Crimson Hawks slowly expanded the gap and won by 14 points, 65-51. Molloy was the top scorer in Saturday's game for SRU with 15 points. Presto added five points and seven assists while Marshall added 12 points of her own. Caudill scored 11 points while Lee led all Rock players with eight rebounds.
The Rock fell to 4-16 overall and has a 1-6 PSAC-West record. Its next game will be tomorrow at 1 p.m. at Mercyhurst College.
Comments which include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. We will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use, privacy policies, or any other policies governing this site at the time of posting. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. Abuse of this feature may lead to the termination of your account or complete removal of this feature. Your posting of content on this website indicates acceptance of these rules. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Be the first to comment on this story