DENVER - The University of Denver women's basketball team downed the Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns 71-47 on Wednesday evening at Magness Arena. Freshman Morgan Van Riper-Rose (Eden Prairie, Minn.) led the Pioneers with a career-high 21 points and four assists.

The Pioneers improve to 17-11 overall, 9-5 SBC with the win, knocking ULL to 5-21 overall, 0-14 SBC.

"It helped that we established ourselves early on tonight," said head coach Erik Johnson. "The good news is that we never really looked back after that. We were able to add to that lead by playing with some really good intensity."

Freshman Jordan Johnston (Waterloo, Iowa) registered nine points, six rebounds and a season-high six assists, while sophomore Maiya Michel (Loma Linda, Calif.) and freshman Chaunise Powell (Union City, Calif.) added eight points each. Michel also contributed a team-leading seven rebounds. Freshman Alison Janecek (Omaha, Neb.) finished with season-highs in points (9) and rebounds (6), and junior Emiko Smith (Los Angeles, Calif.) dished a team-leading nine assists.

Brooklyn Arceneaux led ULL with 10 points and three rebounds, while Laurie Beaty added seven points and two rebounds. Michelle Brunker and Samantha Roy recorded six points each in the Ragin' Cajuns' loss.

ULL led 4-2 to start the game, but Denver took a 5-4 lead at 17:06 and maintained it for the rest of the game. The Pioneers increased their lead over the Ragin' Cajuns to 14 with a 14-4 run at 10:55 of the first, riding 14 first-half points from Van Riper-Rose. Denver took a 37-21 lead into halftime.

The Pioneers used a 14-0 run to start the second half to take a commanding 51-21 lead over the Ragin' Cajuns with over 14 minutes to play. Denver led by at least 20 for the rest of the game.

The Pioneers shot 29-for-63 (46.0%) from the field, while the Ragin' Cajuns were 20-for-47 (46.2%) from the field.

The Pioneers return to action to host Louisiana-Monroe on Saturday, Feb. 18 at 1:30 p.m. MT. The Pioneers will be celebrating Play4Kay Pink Day at the game along with National Girls and Women in Sports Day.

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