Dec. 7, 2002

Box Score

Senior guard Ashley Atkinson (Springfield, Mo./Kickapoo) scored 16 points to lead the University of Denver women's basketball team to a 85-56 victory over Cal State Northridge Saturday at Magness Arena. With the win, head coach Pam Tanner became the all-time winningest coach in women's basketball school history, notching 114 wins in her seven-plus seasons (114-90). Denver improved to 2-4 on the season, while Northridge fell to 0-5.

Atkinson led three Pioneers in double figure scoring. Sophomore Tasha Jones (San Antonio, Texas/Holmes) scored a career-high 15 points, and freshman point guard Amber Johnson (Indianapolis, Ind./Ben Davis) added 13. Atkinson shot 50 percent from the field, including 3-7 from long range as the Pioneers made 51.4 percent of their shots as a team.

Denver earned a five-point lead early in the game when Johnson scored back-to-back buckets to make the score 7-2. The Pioneers never trailed in the game, and built their first 10-point margin midway through the first period (29-19) when Kellie Carwell (Villa Park, Ill./Timothy Christian) sunk her second basket of the game. Denver ended the first stanza with a 17-8 run to take a commanding 46-29 lead to the locker room at the half.

"This game was a good confidence builder for us," Tanner said. "We played well together, and it was nice to see us put some points on the board. I felt good about our offensive flow for the first time all season for about 30 minutes today. If we can continue to score, and play defense the way we have all season, we should see more wins than losses this season."

Denver built its lead to as many as 36 points in the second half as every Pioneer logged at least 10 minutes of playing time. Every Pioneer also found the scoring column. Stephanie Hart (Shoreline, Wash./Shorewood) led the Pioneers in rebounding with eight boards on the day. Brezya Rhodes led Northridge with 18 points, and Ofa Tulikihihifo added 12 for the Matadors.

The Pioneers will not have long to savor the victory, as Denver will travel to Tempe, Ariz., to face Arizona State Monday (Dec. 9) at 6:00 p.m. MT. Denver continues its two-game road trip in Iowa to face the University of Iowa on Thurs. Dec. 12 at 6 p.m. MT.