Jan. 8, 2004

Box Score

The University of Denver women's basketball team earned a 62-52 victory over Eastern Washington Thursday at Magness Arena. Denver improves to 7-5 on the season, while Eastern Washington falls to 6-6.

Denver managed an 11-point lead (46-35) with eight minutes to play, and held off Eastern Washington to maintain a comfortable margin for the rest of the contest. Junior guard Tasha Jones (San Antonio, Texas) led the team with 12 points, and senior center Sarah Cyran (Broomfield, Colo.) scored a season-high 11 points in the victory. Cyran shot 5-7 from the field and converted her only three point attempt.

"This is a good win for us to finish non-conference play," Head Coach Pam Tanner said. "We made each other look good tonight and played to our strengths. We executed well on offense and defense tonight."

After trailing by 10 at the half, EWU came within two points at 35-33 behind three 3-pointers in a 15-6 run. Denver got the lead back to six points at 39-33 with four straight free throws and continued to build an 11-point margin at 46-35 with eight minutes to play. Sarah Cyran hit a three-pointer in a 7-0 Pioneer run to fuel the run. Ragan Neblett picked off a pass and went the length of the court to push the Pioneer lead to 12 points at 53-41 with three minutes in the game.

After an uneventful beginning, Denver went on a 12-2 run to earn a 10-point lead midway through the first half. Eastern Washington responded with an 11-0 run to take a one-point lead (13-12). Kathleen Nygaard scored six points in the run for the Eagles. Stephanie Hart ended the Eagles' run with a driving layup that sparked the Pioneers on a 14-3 run to finish the half. Tyesha Lowery hit a long-range, last second three-pointer at the buzzer, to cap the run and give the Pioneers a 26-16 lead at the intermission.

The Pioneers shot 46 percent from the field for the night, and hit 75 percent from the free throw line (12-16). Nygaard scored 22 points and had nine rebounds for the Eagles to lead all scorers. The Eagles shot 34.5 percent from the field.

Denver has now completed the non-conference portion of the schedule and will embark on Sun Belt Conference play at Louisiana-Lafayette on Saturday, Jan. 10 at 1 p.m.