Jan. 3, 2002

Box Score

The University of Denver women's basketball team won its third straight game and extended its league-best 17-game winning streak by defeating Sun Belt Conference foe Arkansas State 72-62 Thursday at Magness Arena. The Pioneers improve to 7-8, 3-0 while Arkansas State falls to 5-8, 0-1.

The Pioneers had four players in double figures - Nikki Weddle (Denver, Colo./Montbello/CU) and Nicky Eason (Carpentersville, Ill./Barrington) each scored 12 points, Melissa Garcia (Thornton, Colo./Thornton) added 11, and Ragan Neblett (Arvada, Colo./Pomona) had 10. Weddle also added nine rebounds. Denver's second-leading scorer, Ashley Atkinson was held scoreless, but contributed six rebounds, four assists and three steals.

Denver broke the game open in the first half and fought off several runs by the Lady Indians to hold on to win. After playing nip and tuck for the first eight minutes of the contest to a 17-17 tie, the Pioneers scored eight straight points and continued on a 17-2 run spanning six minutes to earn a commanding 34-19 lead with five minutes remaining in the half. Weddle scored a highlight reel reverse layup in traffic to push the score to 29-19. Garcia sunk her first three pointer of the game during the run to further deflate Arkansas State's hopes and the Pioneers finished the half on a 24-6 run. ASU shot just 30 percent from the field (10-33) and committed 13 turnovers while Denver converted 45.5 percent of its shots and earned 10 points from the charity stripe (10-14).

In the second half, Arkansas State scored six straight points in two minutes to close to within 10-points at 51-41. Tasha Jones (San Antonio, Texas/Holmes) responded by scoring seven straight points, including a three pointer with 11 minutes to play to begin the Pioneer 12-2 run that got the winning margin to 20 points (63-43). ASU surged again to close within 12 points with a 13-5 run, capped by Casie Lowman's three pointer with two minutes to play to make the score 70-58. Denver missed three straight free throws to help the Lady Indians close to within eight points with under a minute to play (70-62). Garcia sunk two free throws to get the lead back to the winning margin of 10. Weddle held the ball with 25 seconds to play and missed her last shot but got the offensive rebound to maintain possession and secure a 10-point victory for the Pioneers.

The Pioneers, winners of five of the last six games, will continue their short homestand, hosting Arkansas-Little Rock on Sunday at 12 Noon.