December 9, 2006
BOX SCORE
FARMVILLE, Va.-- The Longwood women’s basketball team was unable to hang onto its six point halftime lead, as UMBC came storming back in the second half in Saturday afternoon’s 57-49 loss at Willett Hall. The Lancers (4-7) came out of the halftime break cold and the Retrievers (4-5) capitalized on Longwood’s missed opportunities in the final twenty minutes. Longwood will travel to Boiling Springs, N.C. next Saturday, December 16, to take-on the Gardner-Webb Bulldogs in a 7 p.m. match-up.
After UMBC jumped out to a seven point lead the Lancers called a thirty-second timeout with two minutes gone to regroup and stop the Retrievers’ offense. Longwood came right out of the timeout and cut the deficit to four, when junior Keiva Small/Norfolk (Norview) converted a three-point play hitting a lay-up and foul shot a short time later to put the Lancers on the board. Amber Sims/Lawrenceville (Brunswick Senior) hit a lay-up and two foul shots the next time down the floor to tie the game at seven a short time later. After UMBC’s Morgan Hatten hit a three to put the Retrievers ahead by one, Sims pulled down an offensive rebound on the other side of the floor and Abbey Freese/West Liberty, Ohio (West Liberty-Salem) hit a three-pointer of her own giving the Lancers the lead for good in the first half. Longwood built a 12-point lead after Anna Steg/Fairfax (George C. Marshall) sunk a jumper in the paint with 3:37 to go in the half. Led by Odessa Williams’/Stratford, Conn. (Stratford) eight points and Sims’ six, the Lancers’ bench outscored UMBC’s by an 18-0 margin in the first twenty minutes. Longwood took a six point lead into the locker room for a 33-27 halftime score.
“The first twenty minutes was the best half we played all season,” stated head coach Pamela Bass. “All the credit goes to the defense we were able to stop UMBC’s inside game and create great things on the offensive side of the floor in the first half. Odessa, Anna and Amber really got us going in both the rebound and points categories early on.”
Lead by Sharri Rohde, the Retrievers came out of the second half and began to chip away at the Longwood lead. UMBC put together a 12-2 run in the opening nine minutes of the second to take a four-point lead, their first since the opening minutes of the game. Sophomore Courtney Dyer/Richmond (Monacan) brought the Lancers back to one on Longwood’s next possession, hitting a three from the left side. That’s as close as Longwood got as UMBC closed the game strong and the Lancers had a hard time getting the ball in the hoop, shooting a season low 18.5% from the floor in the second half.
“We have to do a better job of taken care of the ball,” explained Bass. “The points off turnovers was the difference in the game. We weren’t able to get to that next level after to halftime, and UMBC made the most out of its opportunities. Our bench did a great job for us today outscoring there’s by a 30-2 margin.”
Williams led the Lancers with 10 points while Steg pulled down a game high 11 rebounds. UMBC was led by Rohde’s 13 second half points in the win. The Lancers shot 31.6% from the floor and held a 44-34 edge in rebounds in the match-up.
