PHOENIX, Ariz. – The New Orleans Privateers women's basketball team (0-4) could not get a good look at a last shot as time expired and fell just short, losing 59-57 to the Grand Canyon Antelopes (2-4) on Wednesday night at the GCU Arena.
New Orleans fouled with 11.8 seconds remaining, sending Astrea Reed to the line. After draining the first, Reed missed the second free throw and the ball went out of bounds to New Orleans. With the ball and down two, the Privateers heaved up a three pointer from the right wing that missed, which ended the game.
Courtney Hayes drove to the hoop and converted a three-point play to break a tie game in Grand Canyon's favor at 58-55 with just over a minute remaining.
Yasmin Taylor had a put back on a partially blocked three with 15.9 seconds left for the Privateers to make the score 58-57, setting up the final sequence.
The second half started in back-and-forth fashion as both teams saw extended time with narrow leads. After the second half started, there were eight lead changes in the first 12 minutes and no team led by more than three points in that span. Shortly after that, Casey Rarrick hit a left wing three and a layup on the next possession pushed the Antelopes lead to 49-41, forcing a Privateers timeout.
New Orleans came out of that timeout with six straight points to cut the deficit back down to two. The last bucket of that mini stretch was off a turnover and a converted 2-on-1 break finished by
Randi Brown off an assist from
Ariele Davis. The Privateers fought back to tie the game at 55-55 with 1:18 left.
Both teams began the game cold from the field as the first made field goal did not come until the 16:42 mark when Cheyenne Hedrington made a bucket in the paint. Both teams were a combined 1-for-8 from the field. New Orleans got on the board by virtue of a three-pointer from
Octavia Wilson at the 15:44 mark.
The teams started to heat up as the half went on. Grand Canyon went on a spurt from behind the three-point line, hitting three straight triples in a near three-minute stretch to extend their first half lead to 20-15 with 7:10 left in the half. New Orleans had a strong close to the half though, led by back-to-back triples from
Randi Brown to help vault the Privateers to a 26-25 halftime advantage.
Wilson led the Privateers with 15 points on the night.
Halie Matthews added 12 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the field. Taylor provided eight rebounds in 20 minutes off the bench along with seven points.
Raven Coleman added five points and six rebounds for a Privateers squad that shot 45.8 percent from the field.
Grand Canyon was led by Hayes who posted 12 points and pulled in six rebounds while dishing two assists. Reed added nine points for the Antelopes who won despite being held to just 39.6 percent from the field. Hedrington, the WAC's leading rebounder was held to just three boards in 20 minutes of play after averaging 10.2 boards a game entering the night.
New Orleans returns home to face the Crowley's Ridge Pioneers on Saturday. Tip is slated for 4 p.m.
