Jan. 20, 2005

Final Stats

The University of Denver held a one point lead with two minutes to play, but let a 44-40 decision slip away to Arkansas-Little Rock Thursday. Denver lost its eighth straight game to fall to 2-14, 0-4 on the season while UALR improved to 7-10, 1-3.

After trailing by five points in the second half, senior center Sarah Cyran (Broomfield, Colo.) gave the Pioneers their first lead since midway through the first half with just 1:50 remaining to play in the game. Denver held possession and a one-point lead with just 27 seconds left to play, but two costly turnovers at the end of the game allowed UALR to steal a victory at home.

"The game was even all the way around, but it came down to turnovers, Head Coach Pam Tanner said. "We played more consistently defensively, and we're competitive, but we didn't find a way to win. The positive is that when we made the run to get back in the game, we had four freshmen and a junior in the game."

The Pioneers held top scorers Alicia Cash to just six points, but freshman point guard Jessica Brown led the Lady Trojans with 14 points and Jocelyn Love added 13. Cyran led the Pioneers with nine points, and three players scored eight points - Venice Adams (Luling, La.), Sara Benham (Muleshoe, Texas) and Tasha Jones (San Antonio, Texas). With the statistics of the game nearly even, the Pioneers committed 20 turnovers, while UALR gave up just nine.

Denver regained the lead early in the second half when Cyran drained a 3-pointer from the top of the arc. Cyran followed that with a bucket inside to give the Pioneers a 24-22 lead, their first since midway through the first half. UALR mounted a 10-2 run to go ahead 32-26, and held a narrow four point lead for the majority of the second half. Denver fell behind by five points late in the second half before storming back to take a one-point lead at 40-39 with just under two minutes to play. Denver held the narrow lead and had possession with 27 seconds to play, but two Pioneer turnovers led to four points for the home team and a 44-40 defeat.

In the first half, Denver got out to a 13-9 lead with 11 minutes to play in the period, but score just one field goal the remainder of the half, and Arkansas-Little Rock scored nine straight points to take an 18-13 lead with five minutes to play. Denver scored the last field goal of the half to go the locker room trailing by just three points (18-15). Leading scorer Adams scored just four points, and had five rebounds. Freshman Cassondra Bratton (Arvada, Colo.) came off the bench to score five points and contribute four rebounds in the opening stanza. Denver gave up 10 turnovers in the first half and shot 30 percent from the field (7-23).

The Pioneers will remain in the state of Arkansas to face another Sun Belt Conference East Division foe, Arkansas State on Saturday, January 22 at 6 p.m. (MT). The game will air on 1600 AM KCKK with Mary Kay Mauro calling the action from Jonesboro, Ark.