Dec. 28, 2002

Box Score

El Paso, Texas - The University of Denver women's basketball team dropped a non-conference game to Texas-El Paso 83-75 at the Don Haskins Center Saturday. Denver falls to 5-7 on the season while UTEP improves to 5-5.

The Pioneers made a late-game run to close within seven points, but could not overcome a 13-point halftime deficit and relinquished the non-conference game.

"After a week of good basketball before the holiday break, I thought we could build on that, but this is the team that I saw at the beginning of the year," head coach Pam Tanner said. "We didn't score well from the field and more importantly, we didn't shoot the ball well from the free throw line. We got 30 opportunities, and if we would have made 80 percent of them, we win the ball game."

Denver started the game quickly with a 7-2 run, but UTEP's Dragana Zoric got the Miners into the game, hitting back-to-back buckets, including a trey to tie the game at 7-7 with just five minutes off the clock. UTEP mounted 22-6 run midway through the half to make the score 24-13. Denver got back into the game by employing a half court press defense that earned the Pioneers a 9-2 and got the score within six points at 26-20 with six minutes to play in the half. Denver struggled from the field, shooting 24.1 percent on just seven field goals, and UTEP ended the half on a 12-6 run to take a 39-26 lead to the locker room at the half.

Denver played even with the Miners in the second half but could not make a run until late in the game.The Pioneers cut the lead to seven points with a minute and thirty seconds to play on a 9-3 run to make the score 74-67). Junior Ragan Neblett (Arvada, Colo./Pomona) scored four points in the late-game run

Freshman Nakia Carlisle (St. Paul, Minn./Central) ended as the Pioneers' high scorer with 14 points, while Katie Davenport (Albuquerque, N.M./Cibola) and Tasha Jones (San Antonio, Texas/Holmes) each contributed 13 points apiece. Denver shot 51.5 percent from the field in the second half to finish the game shooting 39.4 percent.

"Nakia came ready to play," Tanner said. "Every time she stepped on the court, she did some good things. She did some very nice things today."

The Miners had several potent scoring weapons, including Romie DeAnda who came off the bench to lead the team with 24 points. Zoric ended the day with 22 points and 11 rebounds, while Vaida Zagurskyte added 13 points.

The Pioneers will return to Denver to begin 2003 by hosting Idaho State in a doubleheader with the men's team on January 2 at 6 p.m.