Women's Basketball finished Home Schedule with Southwestern Setback

IRVING, Texas – The University of Dallas women's basketball team fell 71-53 on Saturday night in a pivotal contest that determined the fifth place seeding in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC). The Lady Crusaders would fall for the sixth straight time against a league opponent and were eliminated from making the tournament.

A jumper in the first minute by sophomore Michelle DeCoud (Monument, Colo.) would give the Lady Crusaders an early advantage. About two and a half minutes out of the opening tip, SU's Madison Lasater hit three free throws in a row on separate trips to gather an unrelinquishable edge. The road squad pushed the gap to 9-2 at about the midway point of the first quarter.

Junior Lindsey Gendron (Houston, Texas) hit a three-pointer and DeCoud followed with field goals on the next two plays to keep UD within range in the early going.

After ending the first quarter down four, the Pirates pulled ahead in the next 10 minutes with a 22-7 scoring effort to build a 40-21 advantage. Despites Dallas swiping a season-best 16 steals against SCAC foes, the guests were able to take the season series and play fairly evenly throughout the second half.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

- Gendron led the team with 15 points off the bench, and DeCoud followed with 12. Sophomore Helen Onyenso (Oak Park, Ill.) and her each grabbed six rebounds.

- Junior Holly Tonry (Seattle, Wash.) matched six assists with as many steals for a season high. The point guard ranks in the top three for both of those categories in the conference entering this weekend.

- Dallas shot 30.5 percent from the field and 17.4 percent from behind the three-point arc. The Gold and Black were about 45 percent in both column. Southwestern won the battle on the boards 49-24. The Lady Crusaders nearly matched their total offensive rebounds with defensive by a pair, and Onyenso had all but one in that category.

- The home team committed 24 turnovers which led to as many points for the Pirates. UD forced 16 miscues and managed that many steals for the team's second highest on the campaign.

- Southwestern was led in scoring by Tori Carraway with a game-high 23 points. She shot 90 percent (9-of-10) from the field. Olivia Podaras and Audrey Garcia added 16 and 13 points, respectively. Carraway was a rebound shy of a double-double and led the squad.

UP NEXT

Dallas is at Arlington Baptist College on Tuesday for a non-conference tilt. The game begins at 5 p.m.