DENVER -- In the final home game of the regular season, senior Micheala Pavlickova (Prague, Czech Republic) recorded her 28th career double-double with 18 points and 12 rebounds and junior Nikki Weddle (Denver, Colo.) added 13 points and four boards to help the University of Denver women's basketball team to a dramatic 51-47 come-from-behind win over Sun Belt Conference opponent South Alabama Saturday night at Magness Arena. The win, Denver's 13th consecutive and 13th straight at home, improves the Pioneers to 21-5, 13-2 in Sun Belt Conference play. South Alabama falls to 12-14, 5-10. Denver's 21 wins are the most earned by a women's basketball team since the 1995-96 team finished 21-7 as a Division II program.
Despite being out-shot 38 percent to 28 percent in the second half and failing to score a field goal in the final 5:06 of the game, the Denver Pioneers proved once again that they have the ability to find a way to win. Four different players converted free throws in the waning minutes of the contest and the Denver defense subdued the Jaguars down the stretch to pull away for the victory.
Denver opened the contest with an 11-2 run in the first seven minutes but were unable to maintain the lead for much longer. South Alabama battled back at tied the game 20-20 with 2:15 left to play in the first stanza. Pavlickova drained an 18-foot field goal with 1:23 remaining to give Denver a 22-20 lead going into the recess.
The Jaguars stormed out of the locker room with a vengeance and dominated play on both ends of the floor. Denver failed to score on its first six trips down the court while the Jaguars built a four point advantage 26-22 three and a half minutes into the half. Denver sophomore Misty Staton (Duke, Okla.) ended the scoring drought with her second bucket of the game to cut the deficit in half, 26-24 but the Jaguars responded with a 6-2 run and held their largest lead of the night, 30-24 with 15:33 left in the game. The Pioneers quietly fought back and tied the game 39-39 after Weddle converted two free-throws with just over eight minutes left on the clock. Denver's defense, which caused 11 turnovers in the game, failed to yield an open shot down the stretch. South Alabama scored its only field goal in the final five minutes of the game with 1:28 on the clock to take a 47-45 lead.
Denver junior Melissa Garcia (Thornton, Colo.) was fouled on a three-point shot attempt with 1:11 left and successfully converted all three tries to give the Pioneers their first lead since the beginning of the half, 48-47. South Alabama missed three shots with their next possession and fouled Staton with :16 remaining. Staton drained both attempts to extend Denver's lead to 50-47. Garcia converted one more free throw with five seconds to play to give the Pioneers their final margin of victory, 51-47.
For the game, Denver was out-shot 34 percent to 26 percent but held an advantage on the boards by out-rebounding the Jaguars 45 to 32. Denver converted 23 shots from the charity stripe in 27 tries, which included 10-of-13 in the final 4:24.
" South Alabama played a great game tonight but we were able to find a way to win tonight, and that is what it's all about this time of year," said Denver head coach Pam Tanner. "We struggled with our intensity tonight and it showed in our poor shooting, but defensively we played solid and it helped us down the stretch."
Denver will put its 13-game winning streak on the line this Saturday, February 24 when they travel south to battle New Mexico State in the final regular season game of the year.
