Jan. 9, 2008

The University of Texas-Pan American women's basketball team dropped a 67-61 decision against New Jersey Institute of Technology at the UTPA Fieldhouse on Wednesday (Jan. 9).

The setback puts the Lady Broncs at 8-9 on the season while the Highlanders improved to 3-10.

The Highlanders quickly went to work on the Lady Broncs, jumping out to an 11-2 lead with 15:02 left to play in the first half. UTPA made its way back into the game and took a 15-13 advantage following a three-pointer by Tamara Vaughn (Houston, TX/Blinn College) at the 8:44 mark.

The Lady Broncs broke into a double-digit lead when Maria Ben Erlingsdottir (Keflavik, Iceland/Sudurnes Comprehensive College) connected on a jumper to make the score 32-22 but a three-pointer by Katie Piekielski with four seconds left in the first half cut the deficit to seven heading into the locker rooms.

Despite shooting 54.5 percent in the second half, the Lady Broncs were unable to stop the Highlanders offensively as they went on a 11-0 run to take a 35-32 lead with 17:05 on the clock.

"This is the third game in a row that we've come out at half and have been very flat," said head women`s basketball coach DeAnn Craft. "We have to find a way to get the stops at the beginning of the second half and we didn't do that tonight. This one is a tough one to swallow but we can't hang our heads because we have a game on Saturday."

The Highlanders dominated the boards as they out-rebounded the Lady Broncs 38-26 which included 19 offensive boards compared to five for UTPA.

"I thought that NJIT came in and knew what our weakness were which was our offensive and defensive box outs. I thought that they exploded that and I thought that they put us on our heels," Craft said.

The Lady Broncs were able to come from behind to tie the game at 48-48 following a jumper by La'Shae Woodard (Houston, TX/Blinn College) with 7:11 left on the clock but the Highlanders never gave UTPA room to breathe as they were able to secure their first road victory and third win of the season.

As a team, the Lady Broncs shot 54.5 percent on (24-of-44) from the field while the Highlanders shot 40 percent connecting on (24-of-60) of their attempts.

Erlingsdottir finished with a career-high 14 points on 6-of-10 shooting, 2-of-3 from the charity stripe while Rose Esther Jean (Missouri City, TX/Hightower H.S.) and Woodard each chipped in with eight points.

Taiwo Oyelola collected a game-high 20 points on 7-of-14 shooting, 1-of-5 from three-point range, and 5-of-5 from the free throw line while adding six rebounds and five steals in 28 minutes of action.

The Lady Broncs will be back in action on Saturday (Jan. 9) when they host Cal State-Bakersfield with game time slated for 7 p.m.

UTPA Sports Information