JONESBORO, Ark. - The University of Denver women's basketball team (13-8, 8-3 SBC) fell 74-58 to the Arkansas State Red Wolves (9-12, 4-6 SBC) on Saturday afternoon in the Convocation Center in Jonesboro, Ark. The loss drops the Pioneers to 8-3 in conference play.

Junior Britteni Rice (Pampa, Texas) led the Pioneers with 15 points, while junior Brianna Culberson (Jefferson City, Mo.) and sophomore Kaetlyn Murdoch (Temple, Texas) both added 13 points each. Murdoch also finished with 10 rebounds to her sixth double-double of the season, 14th of her career, to go along with three blocks and a perfect 5-of-5 showing from the line.

Leading the way off the glass was senior Ashly Robinson (Bloomington, Minn.) as she grabbed 12 rebounds, six offensive, while freshman Emiko Smith (Los Angeles, Calif.) dished out a game-high six assists.

Getting off to a sluggish start, the Pioneers found themselves trailing by 18 points, 27-9, with 10:05 remaining. However, Denver clawed its way to cut the deficit to eight points on a 13-3 run as freshman Sarah Feeney (Bismarck, N.D.), Robinson and Murdoch all chipped in.

A three-pointer by Hurst, with 2:19 left put the Red Wolves back up by 11, 33-22, but Murdoch answered back less than 30 seconds later with her third lay-up of the night. Jefferson put the Red Wolves back up by 11 off a lay-up in the paint, but Robinson provided the final bucket of the half as she grabbed her third offensive board of the night to lay it in and give Denver a 35-26 cushion.

It was much of the same in the second half as the Pioneers were never able to cut the deficit to less than nine points.

Denver returns home to host a non-conference game against the Northern Colorado Bears on Wednesday, Feb. 3 in Magness Arena. Tip time is slated for 7 p.m. and fans can follow the game live on Pioneer Vision and Live Stats at www.DenverPioneers.com.

Pioneer Notes:

• With her 13 points for the game, Murdoch extended her consecutive games with double figures to 11.
• With her 15 points for the game, Rice has now scored in double figures in 17 consecutive games for the Pioneers.
• After only scoring nine points against UALR, Culberson finished the day with 13 points for her 20th game in double figures this season.
• After not tallying one block against the Trojans, Murdoch swatted three Red Wolves' shots to bring her career total to 134 blocks, ranking her fourth all-time in the DU record books.

 

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