NEW ORLEANS, La. – The New Orleans Privateers women's basketball team (0-1) could not hold a halftime lead in a 66-54 loss to the West Alabama Tigers (1-0) in the season opener on Friday night at the Human Performance Center.
New Orleans came out with a strong run in the middle of the first half to build a lead as large as nine points at 20-11. The Privateers had the rebounding edge in the opening 20 minutes of play, but missed free throws cost a larger advantage at the break.
The Privateers led at the break 26-22, but had missed 10 free throws in 16 opportunities.
Dannisha Jackson provided an early spark off the bench with five points, and New Orleans was out-rebounding West Alabama 16-13.
In the second half, West Alabama opened by scoring the first six points of the half to take a 28-26 advantage. The Tigers also shot 48.1 percent in the second half at 13-27 and turned the tables on the boards by winning that battle 25-11.
Halie Matthews led New Orleans with 11 points in her collegiate debut while landing just shy of a double-double with nine boards.
Octavia Wilson also cracked double figures with 10 points, and New Orleans shot 42.9 percent from the field on the night.
Kelcia Bufkin paced the Tigers' scoring with 17 points. Following closely behind were Britney McCloud with 15 points and Jada Williams who scored 11 points with nine coming at the free throw line. The teams combined for 36 free throw attempts in the second half with West Alabama attempting 25 free throws and the Privateers attempting 11 from the stripe.
New Orleans will next travel to Jacksonville State on Nov. 22.
