Dec. 4, 2007

Box Score

Fort Collins, Colo. - Trailing by 20 points with just over seven minutes to play, the Pacific women's basketball team staged a furious rally but eventually fell to Colorado State, 84-77, on Tuesday, Dec. 4.

The loss dropped the Tigers to 3-4 on the season, while Colorado State moved to 2-7 on the season.

With 7:48 to play in the game, the Tigers trailed the Rams by their largest deficit of the night, 20 points at 73-53. With the game seemingly over, Pacific mounted a furious rally against Colorado State led by stifling full court pressure and clutch shooting on the offensive end.

Defensively, the Tigers trap was at its best with sophomore Jasmine Dana (Bakersfield, Calif.) and freshman Jennifer Fath (Carrollton, Texas) heading the point of attack in the full court pressure. With the young duo up top the Tigers forced the Rams into five turnovers over the final seven minutes of action allowing the Tigers back into the game.

After the eight minute media timeout the Tigers came out blazing, led by the hot hand of sophomore Jake Kelly (Fair Oaks, Calif.). Kelly keyed the Tigers' comeback with 10 points over the final eight minutes to finish the game with a team-high 18 points. Two drives by Kelly sandwiched a three point play by Fath that had the Tigers down by 13 points with just under six minutes remaining.

As the Tigers turned up the pressure and chipped away at Colorado State's lead, the Rams showed signs of stress as they helped Pacific with their comeback with missed free throws and broken offensive plays. During the Tigers' comeback the Rams went to the line 23 times, but only made 11 of their free throw attempts. Pacific was finally able to cut the Ram's lead to single digits as they climbed to within nine with 3:02 to play on a pair of free throws from junior Karen Dawkins (Colorado Springs, Colo.).

With the tension rising the Tigers were within sniffing distance of the tie as they trailed by just five points with the ball in their hands with 1:11 to play in the contest. However, the comeback hit a wall from that point on as the shots that were falling for the Tigers early in the rally started to come up short, while the free throws began to drop for the Rams. From there, the Rams were able to pull back away from the Tigers to capture the seven point win.

During the final 10 minutes of the contest, the Tigers defense was able to clamp down on the Rams, holding Colorado State without a field goal for the final 9:02 of the game. Despite the great defense late, the Rams took advantage of the Tigers early in the game to build what would prove to be an insurmountable lead. Sara Hunter and Kandy Beemer were able to keep the Tigers at bay early with their shooting as Hunter finished the game with 21 points on 6-of-12 shooting while Beemer went for a carer-best 18 points including five three-pointers.

While Kelly had 18 points for the Tigers, Dawkins finished the game with her first double-double of the year with 13 points and 12 rebounds. Junior Janae Young (Sacramento, Calif.) dropped in 15 points for Pacific before fouling out of the contest and junior Whitney Price (Las Vegas, Nev.) added 10 points and seven rebounds, one point off Price's career-high. Freshman Andrea Swanson (Littleton, Colo.) added 11 points. Fath finished the contest with seven points and two steals in 14 minutes of action.

Pacific returns to Stockton, Calif. to face Santa Clara at 5 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 8.