UNO-HBU Box Score
HOUSTON – The New Orleans women's basketball team had one of its best shooting performances of the season in defeating Houston Baptist 65-58 on Saturday afternoon at Sharp Gymnasium.
UNO (2-18) ended a 16-game losing streak by shooting 47.1 percent from the field for the contest.
The shooting effort in the game was a far cry from the season-low 20.9 percent effort in the team's 60-45 loss to HBU (4-18) on Jan. 12. Coupled with the Lady Privateers' 42-28 advantage on the glass, the visiting squad was able to overcome its 26 turnovers in the contest.
“HBU outrebounded us by 13 the last time we played ,” said UNO head coach Keeshawn Carter. “Ever since that game, I have stressed that rebounding would be the difference when we played again and I was very proud of our team in that we rebounded them in the way we did.”
Early on, UNO had to build its way out of a hole, trailing 16-8 with 13:28 remaining until halftime.
The Lady Privateers responded from the deficit by scoring 11 of the next 13 points to take a 19-18 lead, their first of the contest. The advantage would swap hands several times before UNO utilized a 17-6 run to turn a 26-23 deficit into a 40-32 lead.
The lead would not change hands again for the remainder of the contest as
Keri Thomas, who scored 15 of her game-high 19 points during the first 20 minutes, nailed a three-pointer at the first half buzzer to send the Lady Privateers into the half with the momentum and a 43-38 advantage.
In the second half, HBU was just unable to recover.
Though UNO cooled down to a 33.3 percent clip from the field in the second half after making 56.7 percent of their shots in the opening half, the Huskies were not much better. HBU shot 9 of 25 from the field for a 36 percent effort while being out-rebounded 21-10 over the final 20 minutes.
“We needed to take care of the ball, we needed to box out,” said Carter of what made a difference in the contest. “Once we were able to do that, get the stops, we were able to push in transition.”
“I knew it would be difficult for HBU to keep up with us in transition game and then we were in it from then on.”
Amber Clay had 10 rebounds to lead the Lady Privateers on the glass, before fouling out.
Mathilde Fogelstrom and
Yasmin Taylor had nine and eight rebounds, respectively. Fogelstrom added 13 points to her tally with
Mirjam Sipos scoring 10.
“We played hard, we played as a team,” said Carter. “Mathilde and Yasmin did a great job there at the end of the game on the boards, giving us some extra possessions to take more time off the clock.”
“This was a total team effort, from
Hayley Alexander coming off the bench to
Amber Clay, even though she fouled out, having 10 rebounds and being productive at the line.”
Erin McGarrachan's 15 points led the Huskies, who also received 13 points from Rachel Arthur. The Lady Privateers held HBU's leading scorer Shanice Steenholdt to just three made baskets in nine attempts.
“I am really excited for the girls and I have known they had it in them,” said Carter.” It was about getting over the hump, one game at a time. “
“We are going to take momentum into our Think Pink night against CSU Bakersfield. They are a team that beat HBU. We need to keep the focus on us and we'll be fine. It is not what the other team does, it is about us and it is about showing up as a team.”
UNO will return to competition this Monday at 2 p.m. when CSU Bakersfield visits Lakefront Arena for the program's annual “Think Pink” game. It is the first meeting between the squads in school history.
NOTES
Prior to defeating HBU, UNO had not defeated an NCAA Division I opponent in 34 games. The previous victory was a 55-48 upset victory over Denver in the 2010 Sun Belt Conference quarterfinals on Mar. 7, 2010. The Lady Privateers in 2010 were the only double-digit seed to reach a conference tournament semifinal.
UNO's last road win at an NCAA Division I foe came on Feb. 17, 2010 with a 58-51 defeat of ULM.
UNO also ended a 22-game road losing streak, last defeating an opponent on the road on Jan. 29, 2011. The victory on that date came against Dallas Christian by a 73-62 score.
Mirjam Sipos shot 5 of 11 against HBU on Saturday and has now shot 12 of 25 (48 percent) over the last two games. Prior to this stretch, the senior guard was 12 of 42 (28.6) over the previous four contests.
