Dec. 10, 2009
Box Score
Stockton, Calif. - The Pacific women's basketball team led San Francisco by as much as 15 points on Thursday, Dec. 10, but fell by a final score of 71-67.
With the loss, Pacific fell to 1-6 on the year while USF increased its overall record to 4-7.
Early on in the first half, junior Jennifer Fath (Carrollton, Texas) was sent to the foul line only 15 seconds into the game when she was tagged by Rheina Ale. Fath's pair of baskets gave the Tigers a quick 2-0 lead that Pacific steadily ran away with over the course of the first stanza. The Dons posted points on the board at 18:41, tying the Tigers after a made jumper by Katy Keating.
Swapping points back-and-forth, Pacific eventually took a one-point, 6-5 lead at the 17:00 mark off a successful lay-up from senior Emma Head (San Diego, Calif.). Over the next four minutes, the Tigers went on a 10-2 run aided by two steals from Fath and freshman Erica McKenzie (Sparks, Nev.). By 13:29, Pacific held a 16-7 advantage over USF.
The Tigers kept with their aggressive pace and increased the lead over the Dons to 10 at 12:04, when freshman Kendall Rodriguez (La Habra, Calif.) converted a fast break lay-up to give the Tigers a 21-11 lead. Sophomore Christina Thompson (Sacramento, Calif.) kept up Pacific's offensive effort four minutes later to push Pacific on a 9-2 run that saw the Tigers tie their largest lead over an opponent this year with a 15-point cushion as they topped USF 28-13 with 8:56 to play in the first half.
But from 6:08 to 4:12, the Dons retaliated with a 7-0 run to put them within six of the Tigers, as Pacific led USF 37-32. With only 48 seconds remaining in the first half, the Dons came within five points of the Tigers after Nnenna Okereke chipped in a lay-up for San Francisco.
Into the second half, Pacific regrouped and brought its lead back to double-digits only two-and-a-half minutes of action after another lay-up from Head. At 17:26, Pacific led the Dons 43-33. Another lay-up from McKenzie at 15:50 completed a 6-1 Tiger run to start out the second half that saw Pacific hold the 45-33 advantage.
From there, the Dons mounted the come-back they saw glimpses of in the first half. A fast-paced 21-8 run over the course of four minutes gave USF a brief 54-53 with 8:03 remaining in the game. In the remaining eight minutes, USF looked to Ale as she single-handedly gave the Dons their win after scoring their final 10 points that sealed Pacific's 71-67 fate and fifth-straight loss. Ale did not miss a single field goal in the contest, going 6-of-6 from the floor, including a perfect 5-of-5 outing from beyond the three-point arc for a game-leading 25 points.
Fath paced Pacific with 15 points followed closely by Rodriguez's 13 points and team-leading four assists.
Pacific next returns to action on Sunday, Dec. 13, when they host Santa Clara in the Alex G. Spanos Center. Tip-off is scheduled for 2 p.m.
