Dec. 22, 2005

Box Score

Sacramento, California - The Pacific women's basketball team's late comeback bid came up just short on Thursday, December 22, as the Tigers fell to the Hornets, 76-66, at the Hornets Nest. With the loss the Tigers fell to 2-8 on the season while the Hornets improved to 5-4 overall.

After starting the opening four minutes of the game, nearly flawlessly, the Tigers found themselves in a field goal drought. Over the middle eight minutes of the opening half, Pacific netted just three field goals allowing the Hornets to go on an 18-6 run, opening up a seven point lead. The Hornets looked to break open the game from behind the arc as they dropped in five three pointers during a 12 minute span. Before the end of the half, Sacramento State was able to take advantage of sloppy play by the Tigers in order to extend their lead to 13 points heading into the break at 40-27. Sacramento State controlled the first half through extremely strong shooting, outshooting the Tigers .556-to-.407 from the field and .400-to-.250 from deep.

After a less than inspiring first half, the Tigers came out of the break ready to play, holding the Hornets to just one basket through the first four minutes of play. The Tigers were able to cut Sacramento State's lead down to eight at the first media timeout, but were unable to breakthrough the eight point barrier until the 10 minute mark on a Renee Roberts' (Lodi, Calif.) three-pointer. Pacific cut the lead down to six with just under six minutes to play, but with every push the Tigers made the Hornets pushed back. Hornets' point guard Stephanie Cherry denied the Tigers their comeback bid as with every basket Pacific scored late, Cherry answered with a basket of her own on the offensive end.

In addition to Cherry offensively, the game turned into a free throw shooting contest late as both teams found themselves in the double bonus with over five minutes to play. With the Hornets coming into the game as the countries top free throw shooting team, the Tigers were unable to get any close than six points late in the game. The Hornets finished the game shooting 16-of-22 from the line and 48% from the field on the night.

Sophomore Kelsey Lavender (Lake Oswego, Ore.), the Tigers' leading scorer on the season, struggled to find her stoke on the night, going 3-of-12 from the floor, all three of which coming from behind the arc and coming in the second half. Senior Tina Sanerivi (Waipuha, Hawaii) led the Tigers offensively with 14 points on 7-of-10 shooting. Just behind Sanerivi was Roberts with 12 points, all coming from deep as she finished with all of her shots coming from downtown (4-of-9). Senior Carolina Ruiz (Paradise, Calif.) netted 12 points and pulled down a game-high eight rebounds, but was unable to help the Tigers late after fouling out of the contest with five minutes to play.

For the Hornets, Cherry finished the game with a contest-high 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting. Three other Sacramento State players reached double figures with Cindy Alldrin scoring 13, followed Ashley Cadotte with 12 and Kim Sheehy with 10.

Freshman Whitney Price (Las Vegas, Nev.), seeing her first action of the season after being placed on the active roster earlier in the week, scored her first two collegiate points with two free throws at 4:30 left in the game.

The Tigers are still looking for their first road victory of the season with their last road win coming at Cal State Fullerton nearly a year ago on December 30, 2004.

Pacific will look to get back on track on December 30, 2005, as they play host to Sonoma State at the Alex G. Spanos Center. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:00 pm.