Crusaders Win on Senior Day; Earn Final Spot in SCAC Tournament
IRVING, Texas – Holly Tonry (Seattle, Wash.) enjoyed her senior day by scoring a career-high 24 points, and helped the University of Dallas women's basketball team earn a 71-63 victory over Colorado College on Saturday afternoon. The victory allowed Dallas (11-14, 3-11 SCAC) to clinch the 6th seed in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) Tournament.
For Tonry, this was only her second time in her career to crack 20 points, and was the first time to surpass the mark in the Maher Center. The senior guard once achieved 20 last year in the season opener at Hendrix College (December 18). Tonry completes her final two home contests with season-bests at the time. She netted 15 about two weeks ago versus Centenary College.
With the win, Dallas improves to winning its fifth game in a row at home in head-to-head meetings with the Tigers (2-22, 1-13 SCAC) dating back to 2012-13. Colorado College had won the previous pair of matchups in Colorado Springs.
NOTABLE STATISTICS
(Individual Notes)
- Tonry led all players with 24 points and also boasted a career-best 10 field goals. She also posted team-highs in assists (7) and steals (4). Her six rebounds were 2nd on the squad.
- Seana Stoia (Tulsa, Okla.), Michelle DeCoud (Monument, Colo.), and Caitlyn Worry (Lumberton, Texas) all reached double figures with 16, 13, and 12, respectively.
- DeCoud and Helen Onyenso (Oak Park, Ill.) each matched game-highs with seven boards. Onyenso pulled five offensive boards.
- DeCoud added three steals and blocks, which increased her school record to 57 on the campaign.
- The Tigers placed a trio of players in double-digits for scoring led by Korbyn Ukasick with 16. Casey Torbet contributed 13 and Nia Duplain tallied 10. Payton Katich added nine points and also was part of the game-high rebounds with seven off the bench. She also dished four dimes.
- Katich and Evan Underbrink contributed for the reserves with seven-of-12 assists.
(Team Notes)
- The 28 made field goals for the Crusaders was the highest mark in a conference game this season.
- Dallas slightly edged in field goal shooting (42.4% to 41.7%), while the Tigers benefited from more trips to the free throw line (16-20) compared to home (9-15).
- The Crusaders caused 22 turnovers while only committing 12. They also had a 9-6 edge in steals. UD also scored a 22-11 advantage on points from turnovers.
- Dallas enjoyed a 34-20 difference for points in the paint.
- The Tigers narrowly won the battle of the boards 33-32. Dallas produced 16 on both sides of the glass.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Tonry started her big day with a layup that tied the score at 2 in the first minute. Worry drained one-of-two trifectas for herself in the game two possessions later to give UD its first lead. The teams kept trading field goals as Stoia went back-to-back with Worry's previous three to make it 8-5.
Torbet for the Tigers would make the second of a trio of baskets from long range to even the score again at 11 with 5:33 in the first quarter. A few minutes later, Stoia and Tonry put Dallas back up four on inside baskets but CC's Ukasick drained a trey at 2:19 to nip it at one (15-14). Tonry had a three-pointer of her own for the final Dallas points and Katich concluded the opening 10 minutes with a jumper in the last four seconds to cut it to an 18-16 lead for Dallas.
Tonry tallied seven points in the first frame, and repeated that mark in the next one as her other three of the game was the first points for the Crusaders three-minutes into the quarter to make push them back in front 21-19. Torbet tied the game for the sixth time at that juncture next, but the Worry, DeCoud, and Tonry scored the next baskets to spark a 6-0 run. The road team responded with nine of the remaining 11 points before intermission to lead 30-29.
In the third quarter, Tonry again got the offense going for Dallas with a layup a little beyond a minute through the first inbounds. Colorado College responded with five unanswered to build its greatest lead of the game 37-31 at 8:10. Both sides experienced cold spells over the next two minutes.
Stoia ended Dallas' drought with a three from the top of the arc and hit nothing but net. Celsi Caraway (Arlington, Texas) followed with her only points on a jumper to nip the margin to a point (37-36). After trading points Onyenso made a layup and drew the foul for a potential three-point sequence. She missed the free throw, but Stoia garnered an offensive rebound and put the Crusaders ahead 47-46 with under a minute. From there on the Navy and White never trailed as Tonry etched the last four points in the quarter. She had 10 in the entire span of the third, and her pair of free throws made it 51-46 with a second left.
Dallas surged forward in the first two minutes of the last quarter to make it a 56-48 advantage. The team's leading scorer, DeCoud, made consecutive jumpers to cap the spurt. A pair of three-pointers in a row by Ukasick and Christina Bowman reduced the score back to 58-56. DeCoud countered with a steal and made the team's third straight basket. Worry added a jumper with 3:56 left to push the edge back to six (62-56). Eventually, the Crusaders would be in front by their greatest margin of 10 (67-57) with two minutes left. Another senior, Stoia, was the producer of that play scoring an old fashioned three-point play. She went 4-for-5 at the charity stripe with all of them coming at the end of the contest to help ice the win.
Prior to the tip-off, seven seniors were honored for Dallas. Tonry, Stoia, Worry, Lindsey Gendron (Houston, Texas), Bethany Pugh (Sacramento, Calif.), Sammi Tso (Las Vegas, Nev.), and student assistant Bekah Hernandez (Azel, Texas) were all recognized.
UP NEXT
After missing the conference tournament, Dallas is back as the 6th seed and will face No. 3 Austin College at 2 p.m. on Friday, February 24. The SCAC Tournament will be held at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas. More information will be available on scacsports.com and udallasathletics.com.
