Women's basketball jumps into 2011-12 season

GREELEY – All 10 players for the Northern Colorado women's basketball team who played in the team's exhibition game against Regis scored at least five points, had at least one rebound and one assist in the team's 95-50 victory on Friday night.

"I thought we were slow on the get-go at the beginning of both halves," said Head Coach Jaime White. "Last year I don't think we had quite the lead we had this year at the half so we came out with more intensity. This year, I think we lacked a little of that intensity to start the second half so that's something we're going to have to work on."

Freshman forward Stephanie Lee came off the bench to lead all players with 16 points. She made 6-of-8 from the field and was a perfect 4-for-4 from the free throw line. She also had three steals, one assist and two rebounds in 13 minutes.

Junior forward Lauren Oosdyke, a Big Sky First-Team All-Conference selection a year ago, scored 15 points and she and senior forward Kaisha Brown each had four assists to lead the game. Sophomore guard D'shara Strange, the 2011 Big Sky Freshman of the Year, scored 12 points and fellow sophomore Molly Duehn pitched in 10 points and had seven rebounds, including five on the offensive end of the floor.

The Bears made over half their shots in the contest, including hitting .667 from the field in the first half (20-for-30) and took advantage of Ranger miscues, scoring 37 off their turnovers. Northern Colorado also out-rebounded Regis by 12, 43-31 and had 19 assists on 37 field goals.

"Overall, I thought our transition really did well," said White. "We do these exhibitions to work on different parts of the game and we were able to do that. I thought everybody really did what we've been working on in practice. I thought our girls did a good job defensively to turn the play around and it all starts on defense. Our young players have to be ready early, not only for themselves but to give some players some rest."

The defense held strong outside the arc, as Regis made just 1-for-17 (5.9%) from the three-point line and they shot just .286 from the field (14-for-49).

Both center Kari Ameling and forward Tae'lor Purdy scored in double figures with 12 and 11 points, respectively to lead the Rangers, while Miranda Martine led the game in rebounds with eight coming off the bench.

The Bears kick off the regular season on Nov. 12 at Bradley. Game time is scheduled for 1 pm (Mountain).

"I'm glad to have a week out now before we start our first official game to work on some of the things we saw we need help on," said White.