Women's Basketball Scoreboard (Dec. 20)
Oakland 100, UM-Dearborn 48
Wright State 90, Gardner-Webb 77
Delaware 69, Youngstown State 49
Oakland 100, UM-Dearborn 49
Olivia Nash led all scorers with 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting and Elena Popkey added 15 points as the Oakland women's basketball team (3-7) used a balance scoring attack to defeat UM-Dearborn (1-10), 100-49, Friday evening inside the Athletics Center O'rena. This marks the first time since Jan. 29, 2011 that OU has finished a game with triple-digit points.
"We stressed all week in practice about being unselfish and getting 25 assists shows how unselfish this team can be," said coach Jeff Tungate. "Credit to the players they buy in to everything we are doing. They are great kids and such a joy to coach that I'm happy for them to get this win and to have such a balanced attack."
Victoria Lipscomb had 11 of her 13 points in the first half on 4-of-5 shooting and Amy Carlton added 13 points and grabbed a career-high and team-best eight rebounds. Michele Hayes tallied 10 points for the second time this season and Nola Anderson recorded a career-high 10 points with a career-best five field goals.
The Golden Grizzlies led 57-30 at the half as the 57 points is the most scored in one half this season. OU closed out the half on a 20-7 run in the final 6:30 capped off by Lipscomb hitting a 3-pointer at the buzzer to take the 27-point lead. Oakland shot 52.5 percent (21-40) in the opening half led by Nash with 13 points and 5-of-6 shooting.
Oakland kept the intensity up in the second half as they forced 15 Wolverine turnovers and scored 23 points off of them. Hayes and Anderson led with 10 points each in the second half and Carlton added eight. Oakland continued to shoot well as they shot 47.2 percent (17-36) in the closing half and held UM-Dearborn to 32.0 percent from the field (8-25).
OU outscored UMD 44-18 in the paint and held a 40-0 advantage in points off turnovers, while leading 43-7 in bench points.
Wright State 90, Gardner-Webb 77
The women's basketball team hit 13 three-pointers and, behind a combined 49 points from Kim Demmings and Ivory James, the Raiders defeated Gardner-Webb 90-77 Friday night in the opening round of the Wright State Invitational Presented by Holiday Inn.
WSU jumped out to a 15-5 lead just 5:10 into the contest thanks in part to nine points from Demmings, but the Bulldogs cut the deficit to two at 28-26 following a Candace Brown three-point play with 3:18 remaining in the first half.
An Abby Jump three and a Sarah Hunter basket, though, pushed the margin back up to seven and Demmings connected on a three from the top of the circle just ahead of the horn to give Wright State a 43-33 halftime advantage.
Gardner-Webb shot 48 percent from the field in the first half compared to 38 percent for the Raiders, but WSU connected on eight of 21 three-pointers compared to just two of three for the Bulldogs. Wright State also led 20-0 in points off of turnovers as they forced 20 miscues while committing just two.
The Bulldogs closed to within three on two occasions in the second half, the second being 53-50 on a Catrina Green jumper with 14:14 to go, only to see the Raiders break the game open with a 19-6 run over the next five minutes, a run that featured a pair of Breanna Stucke threes along with one from Jump.
WSU maintained a double-digit lead from there as the Raiders shot 59 percent from the floor the final 20 minutes to finish at 46 percent overall, including 13 of 33 from behind the arc. Gardner-Webb, meanwhile, shot 55 percent for the game, but was two of five from three.
The Bulldogs led 52-32 in points in the paint and 19-2 in second-chance points, but Wright State led 26-5 in points off of points as they forced 26 while committing just five for the game.
Demmings paced all scorers with 29 points, while James scored 17 of her 20 points in the first half. Tay'ler Mingo added 11 points while Jump had nine off the bench.
Delaware 69, Youngstown State 48
The Youngstown State women's basketball team mounted a big rally in the first half but never got going in the second half in a 69-48 loss to Delaware at the Lehigh Christmas City Classic on Friday evening.
The Penguins trailed by as many as 16 early in the first half but trimmed the deficit down to five at halftime. They were down just five with 13 minutes left before a field-goal drought of eight minutes allowed the Blue Hens to pull away.
YSU turned the ball over 21 times in the game, 13 of which came in the second half. The Blue Hens outscored the Penguins 25-0 off turnovers in the final 20 minutes.
YSU's Heidi Schlegel tied for game-high honors with 17 points, but she was held scoreless over the final 12 minutes. Monica Touvelle and Jenna Hirsch both finished with eight points, and Hirsch added a career-high seven rebounds.
Youngstown State (3-7) will play Vermont in the tournament's consolation game at 2 p.m. on Saturday while Delaware (7-2) will play Lehigh at 4:30 p.m.
YSU started 1-for-10 from the field with Schlegel's bucket at the 18:45 mark being the only field goal in the first five minutes. That allowed Delaware to go up 12-3 in the first five minutes, and the Blue Hens ended up taking a 20-6 lead with 13:12 remaining in the first half. YSU switched to a zone defense, and the Blue Hens scored just 12 points the rest of the period.
YSU held the Blue Hens to two points over a span of nearly six minutes and slowly started to chip away at the deficit. A Schlegel 3-pointer with three minutes left in the first half capped a 10-2 run and got the Penguins within 22-16, and a Hirsch triple with 1:21 remaining made it a one-possession game at 30-27. Buchanan scored on the next possession to put the Blue Hens up five at the break.
Delaware scored the first six points of the second half to go up 38-27, but YSU scored six of the next seven points to get within 38-33 at the 15:47 mark. Hirsch's 3-pointer two minutes later got the Penguins within 43-38, but they didn't have another field goal until Ashley Lawson's jumper with 5:51 remaining. By that time, Delaware had taken a 59-42 lead.
After Lawson's bucket made the margin 15, Delaware outscored YSU 10-4 the rest of the way.
Youngstown State shot 37.5 percent from 3-point range but just 25 percent inside the arc and 28.8 percent overall. Delaware shot 38.5 percent.
