DENVER – Denver erased a late deficit and ended the game on a 10-2 run
to claim a 61-54 victory over the University of New Orleans on
Wednesday night at Magness Arena.
The win was the ninth in a row for DU (10-5, 5-0 Sun Belt), ruining a career night for UNO (7-9, 1-4 SBC) freshman
Juanita Cochran. Cochran finished the game with a career-high 18 points and eight rebounds.
Brittany Helm added 15 points and nine rebounds as the Lady Privateers out-rebounded the Pioneers 49-37.
Britteni Rice was the leading scorer for DU with 21 points. Brianna Culberson tallied 16 points with reigning SBC Freshman of the Year Kaetlyn Murdoch scoring 12 points and grabbing nine rebounds.
UNO took advantage of their inside presence in the second half, outrebounding the Pioneers 30-20 in the second 20 minutes.
The rebounding edge paid dividends, created additional opportunities for the Lady Privateers, who came out of the break and proceeded to grab 13 of the first 14 rebounds contested.
The early discrepancies in the rebounding column allowed UNO to go on a 9-2 run and take a 36-33 lead.
Separation in the scoring was hard to come by for the Lady Privateers, who led by as many as four in the second half. DU's patience paid off as Rice and Emiko Smith connected on consecutive three-pointers to take a late 57-52 lead.
The three-pointers by Rice and Smith started a 10-0 run that carried the Pioneers to their largest lead of the contest at 61-52.
DU led most of the first half and entered the break with a 31-27 lead, but it was not without pressure from the Lady Privateers.
Rice was able to bail the Pioneers out each time UNO threatened during the first 20 minutes. A Rice three-pointer broke a 20-20 tie later in the half, putting the edge into the host team's favor until the end of the break, while also bringing to an end a 7-0 run by the Lady Privateers.
Earlier in the game, Rice connected on back-to-back three-point attempts to start a 9-0 DU run that gave the Pioneers a 19-11 edge. The three-pointers also halted a 9-2 spurt by UNO, that briefly gave the visiting squad their only lead of the half at 11-10.
The Lady Privateers will continue their road trip on Saturday at 2 p.m. against North Texas. The contest will be streamed on UNO Vision with free audio coverage also available on UNOPrivateers.com.
