Women's Basketball 1/26/2008 12:00:00 AM

Shooting Woes Force ORU to 52-49 Loss at Southern Utah

CEDAR CITY, Utah - The ORU Golden Eagles (10-9, 4-4 Summit League) were hoping to put a stop to its current losing skid, but that wasn't in the cards as the Golden Eagles fell to the Southern Utah Thunderbirds (4-15, 2-6 Summit League) 52-49 in Cedar City.

The Golden Eagles were 5-of-15 from the free-throw line and 20-of-73 from field-goal range, making one more shot than the T-Birds. This is the first game all season that ORU didn't have a single player score in double-digits. The high note of the game was the massive amount of rebounds ORU collected, grabbing a season-high 58 boards in the three-point loss.

Freshman Leanne Robison, sophomore Janae Voelker and junior Rachel Watman led the way for ORU with nine points a piece. Voelker snagged 14 rebounds, while grabbed five rebounds and two steals while dishing out four assists. Leanne Robison, making her first start since the second game of the season, finished the game with a career-high 14 rebounds as well as snuck in four three steals, playing tremendous defense all night.

Caitlyn Sears and Chalis Pascucci each put up 11 points for Southern Utah, while Pascucci also snagged a double-double for the T-Birds, grabbing 12 boards. ORU held SUU's top scorer and rebounder, Anne Westwood, to only six points and six rebounds.

Southern Utah's Aubrey Mackintosh scored first with an easy layin for the Thunderbirds to take the first lead of the game. The two newest player's to the Golden Eagles' starting lineup, Leanne Robison and Demesha Heard, were the first to put up points early for ORU, scoring easy back-to-back layups to put the Golden Eagles up 6-2 with 15:40 left. ORU played stingy defense the next four minutes, holding the T-birds scoreless until Chalis Pascuscci would find the basket at 14:55.

ORU would extend its lead to eight, 14-6, with 10:01 left to play with the aid of Janae Voelker and Leanne Robison jumpers. The T-Birds would come right back to get within three after a Mackintosh trey and Anne Westwood layup, forcing ORU to take a 30-second timeout to break Southern Utah's momentum.

The timeout worked as the Golden Eagles would go on an 8-2 run to open their lead to 24-13 with just under five minutes to play. But that momentum would switch yet again as the T-birds would make a 9-0 run of their own, capped by a Jamie Sagers second-straight three, to head into the locker room down by only two, 24-22.

Southern Utah would continue its scoring run with Caitlyn Sears knocking down an early jumper to tie the game, 24-24. Back and forth both teams would go as Rachel Watman would regain the lead for ORU with a 17-footer, but Sears would answer with a three-pointer from the right corner to give SUU its third lead of the game. And back would come the Golden Eagles with a Rachel Watman trey to take the lead 29-27. Back on the T-Bird end, Sears would get the quick jumper to tie the game at 29-all and eventually take the 31-29 lead, with the help of a quick Mackintosh jumper.

The Golden Eagles' scoring slump came to an end at the 11:34 mark with a free-throw by Robison, but that was the only basket for the Golden Eagles in nine minutes, while SUU continued to up its lead, scoring 10-straight to hold the 37-32 advantage. Leanne Robison was able to help out on the free-throw line, scoring three points to aid in the Golden Eagles 8-3 run, but ORU couldn't find a way to stop Chalis Pascucci down the stretch as she scored seven in a six-minute stretch.

Pascucci's basket at the 1:54 mark would give Southern Utah the 10 point lead, its largest of the game. With 1:48 left, Kelly Kindell would knock down her first three of the game, only the second for ORU the entire game, to close SUU's lead to seven. Kindell would knock in her second trey at the 1:08 mark to cut the lead to four.

Rachel Watman would immediately foul SUU's Sears to send her to the free-throw line where Sears would hit both from the stripe, 50-44. With 41 seconds left, Voelker would hit a three from the top of the key and again would immediately foul Sears and again, Sears would hit both of her free-throws. ORU couldn't get off a shot at the end and the Golden Eagles would fall by three, 52-49.

The Golden Eagles head east on Monday as they travel to Kansas City, Mo., to battle it out with the UMKC Kangaroos at 7 p.m.

-ORU-

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Players Mentioned

#11 Janae Voelker: G/F; 6' 0"; Redshirt; Newton HS

#21 Demesha Heard: G; 5' 4"; Junior; John Marshall HS

#25 Leanne Robison: G; 6' 0"; Redshirt; Community RV-I HS

#5 Rachel Watman: G; 5' 8"; Junior; Endeavour Sports HS

Players Mentioned

#11 Janae Voelker
: 6' 0"; Redshirt; Newton HS
: G/F

#21 Demesha Heard
: 5' 4"; Junior; John Marshall HS
: G

#25 Leanne Robison
: 6' 0"; Redshirt; Community RV-I HS
: G

#5 Rachel Watman
: 5' 8"; Junior; Endeavour Sports HS
: G