Tso breaks earlier Career Mark this Season with 21 points; Dallas falls at Webster
ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The University of Dallas women's basketball team kept up through the first 10 minutes of Thursday night's game at Webster University. It was ahead 19-18, but the road team got outscored 55-38 the rest of the way including 45-22 in the second and third quarters. This resulted in the Crusaders (6-3) second straight loss following a 73-57 final to Webster (8-2).
STAT NOTABLES
- Sammi Tso (Las Vegas, Nev.) tallied a new career-high 21 points behind seven made field goals and knocking down all seven (season-high) free throws. Tso's most recent personal best was 20 points in the home opener versus Fontbonne University (Nov. 18).
- Dallas won the rebounding battle 44-34.
- A pair of forwards helped with Michelle DeCoud (Monument, Colo.) grabbing a game-high 11 boards and Seana Stoia (Tulsa, Okla.) following with 10. DeCoud (SCAC leading rebounder) has compiled double-digits in her last three contests with 37 altogether.
- Stoia and Caitlyn Worry (Lumberton, Texas) added eight points apiece for the second most on the team.
- Holly Tonry (Seattle, Wash.) maintained her team-lead in assists with eight. It is the guards second time this year to dish that amount, and one shy of a season-best against Rust College (Nov. 26).
- The Crusaders shot 39.6 (19-48) percent from the floor. Despite a slightly higher mark to the Gorloks' 38.5 (25-65) percent clip, UD turned the ball over 34 times.
- Webster benefitted from the 15-difference margin in turnovers by boasting a 35-14 edge in points off turnovers.
- Dallas did achieve a 15-5 advantage in second chance points.
- The bench for the home team held a 38-9 edge.
- A trio of Gorloks broke double-digits in points led by Kelsey Miller with 19. Both her and fellow starter Taylor Lucas shot 6-for-9 in field goals. Miller added six free throws in seven attempts for her team-high. Lucas tied Jaysea Morgan with 12 points.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Tso scored the first field goal on either side with a jumper at 9:14 to lift the Crusaders in front 2-0. Lucas countered with a jumper about a minute later to deadlock the game again. DeCoud had a field goal to propel Dallas ahead. Kaitlin Snyder split at the free throw line to keep the guests in front. Stoia found the scoring column with her first field goal. She had the next field goal made for the Navy and White with Celsi Caraway (Arlington, Texas) hitting one-of-two at the line prior to account for three points over two minutes. UD never trailed in the game and was up 9-5 with 4:46 to go in the opening quarter.
Dallas was only behind nine seconds in this frame. Consecutive free throws by Sarah Perrin (Gilbert, Ariz.) stretched the teams largest lead of the night to six (13-7) with 2:06 left. WU's Natalie Busscher drained a three-pointer with just over a minute left following Morgan's jumper to cut the gap at 13-12. Tonry answered back with her only points of the first and Tso completed the UD scoring with four straight free throws. Webster's Megan Brandt also went to the line and hit a quartet of free throws under 30 seconds. Her final two lifted her squad up 18-17 with nine ticks. Tso was fouled as time expired and her pair of free throws flipped the score back in favor of the Crusaders.
The first 15 points in the next quarter went to the Gorloks and the momentum was all them. Webster got the run started with Aley Lucas knotting the contest 19-all with the first-of-two free throws converted 26 seconds in. Miller nailed the go-ahead jumper and had eight points total in the quarter. That included back-to-back jumpers and then a pair of free throws that opened a 27-19 edge just over five and a half minutes gone by. Dallas final got on the board this quarter with Worry drilling her lone trey of the game. That came with 2:28 left and reduced the deficit to 11 (33-22). Dallas would be down 37-30 at halftime as a Tso jump shot and two DeCoud free throws nipped the margin to single-digits in the remaining 30 seconds of the stanza.
It took three minutes for the Crusaders to find the bottom of the next in the second half. This time Panda Green (Farmersville, Texas) achieved the feat with a field goal at 7:14. That brought the deficit back under ten (41-32). Two free throws by Stoia just under halfway gone in the third reduced the gap to 43-36. The next possession, Webster earned a three by Jade Sawyer to stretch the advantage back to double figures. Sawyer drained another trey for the final Webster points of the quarter and opened a 63-39 lead. Worry's jumper with 11 seconds to the break finalized the third quarter scoring.
Dallas enjoyed its largest scoring difference edge in the fourth quarter 16-10. However, the game was out of reach for the visitors to claw back and make it interesting.
UP NEXT
Dallas concludes the calendar year at Blackburn College tomorrow at 6 p.m.