Nov. 24, 2006

Box Score

Honolulu - The University of Denver women's basketball team dropped its opening round game of the Hawaiian Airlines Rainbow Wahine Classic to Arkansas, 84-58, Friday afternoon in Honolulu. Denver fell to 1-1 on the season, while Arkansas improved to 6-0.

Trailing by 15 in the second half, Denver staged a rally to cut the lead to seven, but Arkansas proved to be too potent from behind the arc, shooting 6-of-10 in the final half of the game. DU cut the lead to under 10 for the first time since 10:58 in the first half after junior Sara Benham (Muleshoe, Texas) hit a lay-up followed by a steal and lay-up by senior Tyesha Lowery (Arlington, Texas) to cut the lead to seven points.

"We got beat on the boards and our assist-to-turnover ratio wasn't what we wanted," head coach Pam Tanner said. "But outside of those two negatives I thought we played really hard. It is a great game to prepare us for the Sun Belt Conference. We got within seven but mental mistakes blew it open. We played hard and now we have to move forward."

Denver was led by Benham for the second consecutive game, as she recorded 19 points and four rebounds. Lowery contributed 15 points. The Pioneers tallied 31 rebounds, committed 19 turnovers and had 13 assists.

Lowery recorded 13 points to lead the Pioneers in the first half, going 6-of-12. Senior Lauren Reini (Portland, Ore.) pulled down five of her six rebounds in the first half.

DU continues action at the Rainbow Wahine Classic against the loser of Texas Tech and Hawaii Friday evening at either 2:10 p.m. or 4:20 p.m.