Feb. 22, 2003

Box Score

NEW ORLEANS--The University of Denver women's basketball team lost to New Orleans 61-44 Saturday at Lakefront Arena. Denver falls to 12-14, 6-6 on the season, while New Orleans improved to 11-14, 7-6.

New Orleans used a 20-2 second half run to power past the Pioneers in a Sun Belt Conference West division showdown in the Big Easy. The loss keeps the Pioneers in fourth place in the division.

"We had 33 turnovers tonight. New Orleans was aggressive, but we didn't handle ourselves very well," head coach Pam Tanner said. "We had the lead, but we didn't have the killer instinct to put the game away. It is frustrating for the coaching staff; the players have got to want to win and we haven't found that part of our game yet."

After building a 29-21 lead in the second half, the Pioneers allowed UNO to score 13 unanswered points and fell behind five points (34-29). The Privateers continued on a 20-2 run to lead 42-30 with 10 minutes to play. Denver came back to life and mounted a13-6 run of its own to trail by just four points with five minutes to play. But, the Pioneers scored just one more point and UNO scored nine straight points to take a 61-44 decision.

Denver rushed out to a five point lead early in the first half as Ragan Neblett scored back-to-back buckets, but New Orleans exerted its defensive pressure and earned a 12-11 lead to begin the back and forth battle. Sarah Cyran regained the lead for the Pioneers and Stephanie Hart scored to give Denver a 15-12 lead. Jasmine Smiri scored the next five points to give the lead briefly back to UNO. The Pioneers ended the half on a 7-2 surge to take a narrow 22-19 lead to the locker room. Ashley Atkinson, held scoreless in the first period, took a charge with five seconds left in the half to prevent a Privateer score.

Neblett led Denver with 14 points, and Stephaine Hart added 11 points. Denver committed 33 turnovers and made just four three pointers. Lora Ruddy led all scorers with 17 points, while Monique Taylor and Jasmine Smiri scored 10 apiece.

The Pioneers continue on the important West Division Sun Belt Conference road trip at South Alabama on Monday (2/24).