Nov. 22, 2009

Box Score

West Long Branch, N.J. - With a total of 11 freshman splitting time on the floor, Monmouth led the youth movement as the Pacific women's basketball team fell 64-53 to Monmouth on Sunday, Nov. 22.

With the loss, Pacific dropped to 1-3 on the season, while the Hawks earned their first victory of the year, improving to 1-2.

While the Tigers attempted to come back from a 38-17 deficit at halftime, including a final 21 points from freshman Kendall Rodriguez (La Habra, Calif.), Monmouth's opening 14-2 run was too much for Pacific to overcome. Rodriguez nearly finished two rebounds shy of a double-double, complimenting her 21 points with eight rebounds.

In less than the opening 30 seconds, the Hawks dictated the game's rhythm when Alysha Womack sank an opening jumper off of possession from the tip-off to take the first lead 2-0. The two-point lead was good enough to seal the Hawks' victory from the get-go, as Pacific trailed throughout the entire duration of the game after the 19:36 mark.

Down 6-0, Pacific looked to keep it close with 17:46 remaining in the first half as junior Shantel Thomas (Sacramento, Calif.) contributed to the Tigers' first mark on the scoreboard with a lay-up to cut down the Hawks' lead. But that was all the scoring the Tigers could come up with in over three minutes, when Rodriguez gave Pacific's its next pair of points at 10:40 off a jumper that she gave way to via a defensive rebound on Monmouth's half of the court. At that point, Monmouth still held on the the reigns of the game with a 14-4 lead.

Pacific's defense held strong after the 14-4 run, as the Hawks recorded a three-minute lapse in which they could only tally one point, after leading leading 18-6 at 7:37. However, the Tigers' offense failed to capitalize and only put up four more points during that span of time. With 6:38 to play in the first half, Pacific cut the lead down to eight, trailing 18-10. But the Hawks ran away with the half, leading by as much as 20 with the score at 34-14 in the final two minutes of the first period.

By the start of the second half, that lead increased to 25 when a layup from Erin Rooney gave Monmouth a 42-17 lead over the Tigers. Rodriguez gave the Tigers a chance when she chipped in 15 points during the second half, kicking off with her first three-pointer of the second half at 11:07, leaving the Tigers trailing by a score of 51-28. In the next two ensuing plays, Pacific got hot from beyond the three-point arc, as Rodriguez drained another, followed by junior Gretchen Tiernan (Roseville, Calif.) less than one minute after the first. Pacific then cut the lead down to 19, trailing 53-34. The Tigers continued to slowly attack the basket and brought the lead down to 14.

A successful jumper at 4:16 gave Monmouth a chance to pull away again, as the Hawks' lead increased back to 18, before the combined efforts of sophomore Eliza Dy (Chino Hills, Calif.) and seniors Jasmine Dana (Bakersfield, Calif.) and Emma Head (San Diego, Calif.) reeled Monmouth back to a 64-50 lead with 1:27 left.

Just before the buzzer Rodriguez put her finishing touch on the game, with the hand of Womack in her face, as she drained her third and final three with :05 left on the final clock.

Behind Rodriguez's 21 points, Abby Martin finished as the second highest scorer on the night, including a double-double to her name with 12 points and 16 rebounds.

The Tigers will break from action for the Thanksgiving holiday and then resume their road trip, when Pacific heads to Portland, Ore., to take on Portland on Friday, Dec. 4, then Portland State on Sunday, Dec. 6.