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For
Immediate Release: December 15, 2001 OGDEN, UT-Neither the mile-high altitude nor Weber State University’s Dee Events Center were kind to the University of Texas-Pan American women’s basketball team on their first visit to Ogden, Utah Saturday afternoon. WSU outscored the Lady Broncs, 47-23 during the final 17 minutes and 44 seconds and went on to an 85-60 victory. After
trailing early, 18-5, the Lady Broncs outscored the Wildcats, 14-4, cut
WSU’s advantage to 22-19, and stayed close for the remainder of the
first half. The
Lady Broncs trailed at halftime, 34-31, and were down 38-37 early in the
second half before WSU made a decisive run. The Wildcats outscored UTPA,
27-7 during the next eight minutes to take command. “We
had a little bit of a letdown in the middle of the second half, and they
took advantage of it,” said UTPA Associate Head Coach Carol Russell.
“They turned it up in the second half, and we just weren’t able to
match it. They have a good inside-outside game with Crystal Howe and
Stephanie Stanger, and they are their two big guns.” Junior
forward Naima Williams (Houston, TX/Clear Brook HS) had 16 points for
the Lady Broncs, while senior forward Kelli Kreuser (Bettendorf,
IA/Davenport North HS/Truman State) added 14 points and eight rebounds.
Stanger led alls corers with 32 points, while Howe added 17 and Julie
Gjertsen had 13. “Naima
had a good game for us,” Russell said. “Kelli had a solid game as
well. We saw a lot of nice things, and we’re improving, but we still
have a young team, and we’re still trying to put a 40-minute game
together.” The
Lady Broncs fell to 2-9 with the defeat, while WSU improved to 5-4 with
the victory. UTPA will return home for final exams, and hit the road
again to visit Wyoming next Friday night. WBBWEBERSTATE121501
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