Jan. 31, 2007

Box Score

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - The University of Denver women's basketball team led for the first 7:14 of the game but the No. 19 Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders took control of the game and went on to win 82-58 in Sun Belt Conference action in the Murphy Center in on Wednesday evening.

Junior Alisha Godette (Colorado Springs, Colo.) scored 15 points and had eight rebounds for DU. Junior Jenna Cole (Lincoln, Neb.) was the only other DU player in double figures with 10.

"Middle Tennessee is playing like the nationally ranked team that they are," head coach Pam Tanner said. "I thought we handled their press well. I thought we played hard. We just ran out of gas. I thought we played with some great effort."

The Pioneers (12-9, 7-5 SBC) opened the game on an 8-2 run and lead by as many as six before the Blue Raiders (20-3, 12-0 SBC) went on an 11-2 run, including back-to-back threes to take a six point lead at the under-12:00 minute media timeout. Denver cut the deficit to three before MT's press proved to be too much for the Pioneers, holding DU scoreless for 4:15. Sophomore Nnenna Akotaobi (Thornton, Colo.) hit a jumper to cut the lead to seven. Middle Tennessee scored 13 points off Denver's 13 turnovers in the half and led 37-23 at the end of one.

Denver's second half was much like the first half with MT controlling the ball and forcing Denver to take only 21 shots in the half. Middle Tennessee outscored DU 45-to-35 in the second half.

Denver did fair better then the Blue Raiders from the free throw line hitting 78.6 to the MT 61.5. Chrissy Givens led all scorers with 16 points, one of five Blue Raiders in double figures.

DU takes on Front Range rival Northern Colorado on Sunday, Feb. 4 at 2 p.m. in Greeley, Colo. The game can be heard live on www.denverpioneers.com with Mary Kay Mauro and calling the action.