Spring Break
URI women's basketball suffers eighth straight loss against Dayton University
Matt Swiss
Issue date: 2/27/09 Section: Sports
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The game marked the final home game for six Rhody seniors, as Crystal Bellinger, Sierra Cooper, Ebony Evans, Tanja Licina, Amanda McGrew and Aija Veiksane were all honored in a pregame ceremony.
Rhode Island's 36 points was the lowest the Rams scored in a game since they were held to just 29 against No. 13 Xavier University.
"You're not going to win too many games if you can only put up 36 points and shoot 21 percent from the field," head coach Tom Garrick said. "We had a lot of open shots and they just didn't go. That's been a trend for us, a disturbing one, but it's one that you'd like to think you can work your way out of."
Despite its poor shooting effort, the Rams became only the third team all year to hold the Flyers to 46 points or fewer and held four of Dayton's five starters below their season average for points per game.
"I just think our kids were in tune," Garrick said. "Our zone defense stifled them a little bit and we marked their shooters pretty well. It's just tough when you're fighting and struggling on defense and you're doing a good job, but when a two point lead goes to five, goes to seven, and you know you're struggling offensively, you start to get a little tighter."
After winning the opening tip, Dayton missed its first six attempts, the sixth of which resulted in a huge block from Evans. Moments after the rejection, Dayton's freshman center Casey Nance took it strong to Evans, scoring while being fouled in the act of shooting. Nance hit the free-throw and sparked a 7-0 run to open the game for the Flyers.
The Rams answered quickly, outscoring Dayton 7-1 during the next four minutes of play to cut the deficit to one, 8-7.
The run was capped off by a jumper from the right baseline from junior guard Lindsay Harris. Rhody was held to just four points during the final 11 minutes of the first half, while allowing 16 points in that span, and entered the break trailing 24-11.
"We're trying to get the kids better shots and better looks," Garrick said. "We're getting the ball on the block very consistently. We're just not finishing so we need to do some work in these last couple of games."
