Women Fall to Conference-Leading Weber State at Home
Feb. 1, 2007
GREELEY, Colo. - Down only one point at the break, the University of Northern Colorado women's basketball team lost its collective shooting touch in the second half, and dropped the game to Big Sky Conference-leading Weber State Thursday night at home, 56-45.
Early on, the Bears (5-17, 2-8) showed they were equal to the Wildcats, as the team's battled to within four points of each other the entire half. The Bears held that margin at 18-14 with just over eight minutes to play.
The Wildcats (13-9, 8-1) took a 27-26 lead into the locker rooms, similar to the 37-35 halftime led they held in the team's January 4 meeting in Odgen, which Weber State went on to win 78-66.
This time around, the Wildcats used a second-half-opening 16-4 run to get ahead 43-30, and even though Northern Colorado cut the lead to eight two minutes later on a Bailey Dillon 3-pointer and a pair of Whitley Cox free throws, they never got within that margin again, largely because of a 22 percent second-half shooting percentage. They scored just 19 points after the break.
Late in the game, the visitors grabbed their biggest lead of the night at 56-42 before Melanie Drangmeister drained 3-pointer with 23 seconds for the game's final points.
Cox led the Bears with 17 points on 6-of-16 shooting, and Heather Barbour was the only other Bear to reach double digits with her 14-point performance.
Weber State's Chelsey Warburton led all scorers with 21 points.
The Bears conclude their three-game homestand when they host Denver University at Butler-Hancock Sports Pavilion on Sunday. Tip-off is at 2 p.m.
