Women's Basketball 12/1/2012 6:08:00 PM

Women’s Basketball Falls Short in Comeback Bid

Box Score LAREDO, Texas – Tina Dang led a furious late game comeback, but the Dustdevils came up short falling to St. Mary’s University Saturday afternoon 73-67 at Bill Greehey Arena in San Antonio. The loss drops the Dustdevils’ overall record to 2-5 on the season and 0-1 in conference play.

“In a nutshell, we just didn’t get great offensive execution tonight,” said Head Coach Michelle Bento-Jackson. “In the second half we tried to spread the floor out and be more aggressive off the dribble, but out screening was extremely poor and didn’t allow us to create space. At no point in the game did I think we held our heads down. I thought we fought hard some players came off the bench and gave us some great minutes. Even though we were down by a bunch at one point, we never threw in the towel which is something positive we can look at moving forward.”

The Rattlers were led by Lia Kioa and Jackie Woods who combined for 30 points and nine rebounds. Liz Boyd added 11 points and six boards for St. Mary’s, who out-rebounded TAMIU 45-38.

TAMIU struggled from the free throw line, connecting on only 16-29 attempts while the Rattlers knocked down 21-27.

“It’s not just missing free throws, it’s missing free throws at crucial moments,” said Coach Bento-Jackson. We start to close the gap, we get fouled and go to the line, and then miss free throws. When you miss free throws down the stretch it’s a dagger for your team.”

Malika Jackson led the Dustdevils with 12 points, shooting 4-7 from the floor. Dang had the hot hand from the outside, but wasn’t allowed to get going after getting in early foul trouble. She finished with 11 points, all coming in the second half, connecting on 3-4 three point attempts and adding two free throws. Kim Brown and Re’Nikia Meshack each added ten points apiece.

After starting out to a 6-6 tie, St. Mary’s went on an 8-0 run starting at the 15:25 mark to take a 14-6 lead. Meshack converted a three-point play to trim the lead to five, but the Rattlers came right back with eight straight points, extending their lead to 22-9. St. Mary’s would push their lead out to 16 with 7:24 to play, but TAMIU was able to trim the deficit to only nine points by the half.

St. Mary’s shot only 31 percent in the second half, but the Dustdevils were unable to do enough damage to complete the comeback. After a back and forth start over the first nine minutes, St. Mary’s opened up a 17 point advantage outscoring TAMIU 15-7 over a four minute stretch. With just under five minutes left to play, Dang caught fire and started to chip away at the Rattlers’ lead.

Dang and Valencia Roy combined for five straight Dustdevil points to pull TAMIU within eight with only 1:44 remaining. St. Mary’s Jackie Woods made a crucial free throw to push the lead back to nine, before Faatimah A answered with two free throws of her own cutting the lead to 72-65 with 30 seconds remaining. Liz Boyd iced the game for the Rattlers with one final free throw at the 18 second mark. Meshack added one final layup for TAMIU to end the game at 73-67.

The Dustdevils will step out of conference play on December 5, hosting Texas A&M Kingsville at the TAMIU KCB. Tip off for Wednesday night’s game is scheduled for 7 p.m.

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