Jan. 30, 2003

Box Score

Las Cruces, N.M. - The University of Denver women's basketball team fell to Sun Belt Conference foe New Mexico State 66-55 in a West Division showdown Thursday at the Pan American Center. Denver is now tied with NMSU for first in the division at 11-10, 5-2. The Aggies improved to 11-8, 5-2.

Denver led by nine points midway through the first half, but relinquished 11 points to end the period and give the Aggies a 40-33 lead at the intermission. Trailing by seven to start the second stanza, Denver cut the margin to five points before allowing an Aggie 14-5 run that opened a 10-point lead for the home team. NMSU maintained the margin to earn an 11-point victory and a tie fir the lead in the West Division of the Sun Belt Conference.

"New Mexico State played with more will to win than we did, and they deserved to win tonight," head coach Pam Tanner said. "It's disappointing, but it's not the end of the world. It's early in the season, and we have a long way to go in the conference race."

Ashley Atkinson (Springfield, Mo./Kickapoo) buried two three pointers, and Tasha Jones (San Antonio, Texas/Holmes) added another to get the Pioneers out to an early 9-5 lead. Denver built a 21-12 lead with 12 minutes to play in the half before New Mexico State scored the next six points and continued on a 14-5 run to tie the game at 26 points. Denver rallied to regain the lead at 33-29 with six minutes to play in the half, but failed to score again while the Aggies tallied 11 points to end the period and take a 40-33 lead to the locker room.

Jones led the team with 18 points, and Atkinson finished with 10 points to lead the Pioneers. Sinnamonn Garrett led all scorers with 26 points on 11-15 from the field.

Denver played with a nine-player bench without the services of freshman reserve point guard Amber Johnson (stress fracture) and starting forward Stephanie Hart (illness).

The Pioneers will look to get back to winning as they continue on their two-game conference road trip at Louisiana-Lafayette on Saturday at 6 p.m., MT. The game will be aired on AM 1600 KCKK on a tape delayed basis after the Pioneer hockey game.