DENTON, Texas - To snap their nine-game road losing streak, the
University of New Orleans had to overcome foul trouble that led to a
shortened bench in a 84-70 win over North Texas in Sun Belt Conference
action on Saturday afternoon.
The
Lady Privateers, who had not won on the road since a Jan. 31, 2008 win
at Florida Atlantic, were dealt a short bench when
Ty Felder fouled out
with 3:28 left in the opening half and
Candice McGee followed her to
the bench with 9:58 remaining in the second half.
Jada Frazier
stepped up to the challenge becoming the first UNO (5-5, 1-1 SBC)
player to score over 20 points on the season when she netted a
career-high 29 points including 19 in the second half.
Nicole
Holmes had 15 points while McGee and
Cookie Johnson had 12 and 11
points, respectively.
Jerrinika McClue had a career-high nine rebounds.
NT
(5-6, 1-1 SBC) was led by Amber Jackson who had 28 points and 10
rebounds in 40 minutes of play. Brittney James had 14 points while Yari
Escalera had 11 as the Mean Green lost at home for the second time in
three games this season.
The Lady Privateers put the defensive
clamp on the Mean Green to start the game, holding NT to 3 of 13
shooting over the first eight minutes of play while shooting 6 of 11 on
their offensive end. The strong start on both sides of the floor
allowed UNO to take a 16-8 lead.
With a 23-15 lead in favor of
the Lady Privateers, the Mean Green went on a 6-0 run to cut the UNO
advantage to two. The Lady Privateers responded with a Johnson lay-up
before a Felder steal led to a Frazier fast-break lay-up on the ensuing
possession for to give UNO some more breathing room.
With McGee
scoring 12 points and Frazier adding another 10 in the opening half,
the Lady Privateers carried a 37-32 lead into the break.
Frazier
picked up right where she left off, scoring the first seven points for
UNO in the second half as the team expanded their lead to six at 44-38
and up to eight on a Holmes lay-up.
The Mean Green would not go
away, cutting the lead down to three on several occasions before UNO
put together an 8-0 run started by a Frazier three-pointer on way to
taking an 11 point advantage at 56-45 with just under 11 minutes
remaining in the contest.
Down two starters when McGee fouled
out a minute later, the Lady Privateers bench was forced to step up.
Johnson was amongst a group of supporting characters that stepped up,
making a three-pointer to give UNO a nine-point lead at the 7:16 mark.
As
the Lady Privateers looked to close out the game, they were aided by
poor NT shooting from the charity stripe as the Mean Green shot 8 of 18
in the second half.
UNO will hit the floor again Monday when
they head south to Thiobdaux, La. to face Nicholls State. The game will
start at 2 p.m. with live audio available exclusively on
UNOPrivateers.com.
