Nov. 9, 2007

Box Score

Logan, Utah - In front of a hostile crowd on the road in Logan, Utah, the Pacific women's basketball team took home a 67-66 win over Utah State to open their 2007-08 season on Friday, November 9.

The win was Pacific's first win on the road to open a season since 1993 when they defeated Sacramento State at Hornet Gym to open the season.

Entering the season with six new players on the active roster the Tigers used a mix of both old and new players to capture a thrilling one point win at Dee Glen Smith Spectrum. Sophomore Jake Kelly (Fair Oaks, Calif.) continued where she left off from her freshman season as she dropped in 13 points in the season opener including hitting the game winning free throw with six seconds to play in the game.

While Kelly was the known commodity coming into the contest, newcomers Janae Young (Sacramento, Calif.) and Andrea Swanson (Littleton, Colo.) proved to be the tipping point for Pacific in the contest as each tallied 13 points in their first games as a Tiger. Young and Swanson were asked to pick up the extra slack left by the absence of juniors Whitney Price (Las Vegas, Nev.) and Karen Dawkins (Colorado Springs, Colo.), Pacific's starting post players from a season ago, who each missed the Tigers' season opener.

The first half showed signs of the fireworks to come at the end of the second half as the two teams battled to a 31-30 halftime score with Utah State holding the one point advantage at the break. Fittingly, the Aggies captured the one point lead on a pair of free throws by Taylor Richards with five seconds remaining in the opening half.

Utah State held a lead by as much as six points in the first half of play while the Tigers took the lead for the final 10 minutes of half, leading by as much as three points in the opening 20 minutes.

With a one point lead, the Aggies jumped all over the Tigers in the opening four minutes of the second half as they pushed their lead to nine points at 39-30 before the first media timeout. Despite going scoreless for the first four minutes of the half, the Tigers flipped the switch after the 16:00 minute media break and stormed back to take a 46-45 lead with just over nine minutes to play.

Young spurred the Tigers rally with a steal and multiple pass deflections in a five minute span on the defensive end while on the offensive end the Tigers' began to heat up from outside as senior Kelsey Lavender (Lake Oswego, Ore.) and junior Amy VanHollebeke (San Diego, Calif.) each nailed a distant three-pointer to get the Tigers' off and running. Lavender finished the game with nine points, all in the second half and all coming from behind the arc, while VanHollebeke dropped in seven points while grabbing a team-high seven rebounds from her point guard position.

Despite their best efforts, the Tigers could not shake the Aggies in the second half even though they held the Aggies to just 20% shooting in the half while shooting 56% themselves from the field. Utah State was able to hold close to the Tigers with other worldly shooting 93% from the charity stripe as the Aggies hit 27-of-29 free throws including 23-of-23 in the second half of play.

After a pair of free throws by Danyelle Snelgro tied the game at 66-66 with :22 seconds to play in the game, the Tigers pushed up court to setup what they hoped would be the game-winning play. In their offense, Kelly circled the top of the arc from left to right in search of a teammate for a shot. However, as she turned the corner with six seconds to play, Jamelah Brown jumped in her way, creating contact and picking up the foul that would send Kelly to the line to shoot two as Pacific was in the double bonus.

With the arena rocking due to crowd noise, Kelly missed her first attempt wide left. Despite the miss, Kelly calmly stepped to the line and hit the second of her two attempts to put the Tigers up 67-66.

With six seconds remaining the Aggies still had a chance to win, but the Tigers clamped down defensively and forced Utah State into a bad three-point attempt from the corner that clanged off the side of the iron, ending the game.

For Utah State, four players went for double-figures with Richards leading the way with 18 points. Lindsey Shipley and Snelgro each added 14 points while Jenny Gross dropped in 10.

Pacific will be back in action on Tuesday, November 13 as they host Cal State Stanislaus at the Alex G. Spanos Center. Game time is scheduled for 7:00 pm.