Fast Start Can't Help @UNCBearsWBB Get Past St. Mary's

Sunday, November 22

Greeley, Colo.

6:00 pm

University of Northern Colorado

2-2

St. Mary's

4-0

Team	1	2	3	4	F
Saint Mary's	16	18	10	21	65
Northern Colorado	17	11	12	12	52

Photo by: Dean Popejoy

11/22/2015 10:22:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

UNC women's got out to a fast start Sunday night, but struggled on the boards in a lose to St. Mary's

By: Ryan Pfeifer, UNCBears.com

GREELEY, Colo. – Northern Colorado women's basketball got out to a quick start against St. Mary's Sunday night, but could not overcome a large rebounding differential, falling to the Gales 65-52.

"That game was a contrast of two styles of basketball tonight, one team is big and strong and attacks the basket, while the other stands around the three point line and relies on jump shots," head coach Kamie Ethridge said.

UNC opened the game forcing four SMC turnovers in the first three minutes, three via steals to jump out to a 10-2 lead. Kianna Williams and Savannah Smith helped lead the charge in those early minutes, combining for eight of the 10 points and an assist and a steal.

Williams finished the night tied for the team lead in points at 10, along with three steals and two rebounds.

Smith ended with six points two assists a rebound and a steal.

That early lead wouldn't last as the Gales chipped away at the Bears, but UNC remained on top, 17-16, after one quarter of play.

In the second quarter though, SMC went on a 9-0 run in the opening minutes and started controlling the boards. For the night St. Mary's out-rebounded the Bears 52-25 and had 22 offensive boards alone.

"We have to get our smaller people more engaged on the glass," Ethridge said." Savannah Scott did a good job of doing that tonight, but we have to work on getting more of our guards to do that as well."

Even with the trouble on the boards, UNC still kept the game close. After three quarters of play, UNC was within four points at 44-40.

The Bears pulled within two early in the fourth quarter off a Cortney Smith jumper, but that is as close as the team would get.

St. Mary's quickly responded with 6-0 run to extend its lead to eight and never looked back.

"We came out of the gate really strong tonight, but then we let them win the second and fourth quarter where they closed the half and game out strong, which we have to work on," said Savannah Scott.

For Northern Colorado, Kyleigh Hiser joined Williams in double figures scoring at 10 points with six of the 10 coming off two made 3-point shots.

Another Bear who performed well was Savannah Scott who had seven points and a team leading five rebounds.

Katie Longwell once against distributed the ball well tonight adding six more assists to her season total.

"We play all of these different types of games to get us prepared for conference play, this game and the rest of our games in non-conference play will make us a better team once conference play comes along," Ethridge said of the tough non-conference schedule.

UNC will now travel on the road to play in a Thanksgiving weekend tournament hosted by the University of San Diego. It will start on Friday, November 27 when the team faces off against Akron at 3:00 p.m. mountain time.